3 

MAY  2  1 1924 
OCT  1  G  192 

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3C 


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OCT 
OCT  2 1 1970 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  NATIONS 


ROME 


FROM  THE   EARLIEST   TIMES    TO   THE 
'    END  OF  THE   REPUBLIC 


BY 
ARTHUR   OILMAN,  M.A. 

AUTHOR   OK  "A   HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE,"  EDITOR   OF   "  THE 
POETICAL  WORKS   OF   GEOFFREY   CHAUCER,"  ETC. 


NEW  YORK 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

LONDON:  T.  FISHER  UNWIN 
1898 


COPYRIGHT  BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
1885 


Vbe  *nichcrbochcr  prca0, 


TRoebeHe,  1A.  £. 


PREFACE. 

co      .   Z 


IT  is  proposed  to  rehearse  the  lustrous  story  of 
Rome,  from  its  beginning  in  the  mists  of  myth  and 
fable  down  to  the  mischievous  times  when  the  re- 
public came  to  its  end,  just  before  the  brilliant 
period  of  the  empire  opened. 

As  one  surveys  this  marvellous  vista  from  the 
vantage-ground  of  the  present,  attention  is  fixed 
first  upon  a  long  succession  of  well-authenticated 
facts  which  are  shaded  off  in  the  dim  distance,  and 
finally  lost  in  the  obscurity  of  unlettered  antiquity. 
The  flesh  and  blood  heroes  of  the  more  modern 
times  regularly  and  slowly  pass  from  view,  and  in  their 
places  the  unsubstantial  worthies  of  dreamy  tradition 
start  up.  The  transition  is  so  gradual,  however,  that  it 
is  at  times  impossible  to  draw  the  line  between  his- 
tory and  legend.  Fortunately  for  the  purposes  of  this 
volume  it  is  not  always  necessary  to  make  the  effort. 
The  early  traditions  of  the  Eternal  City  have  so  long 
been  recounted  as  truth  that  the  world  is  slow  to 
give  up  even  the  least  jot  or  tittle  of  them,  and 
when  they  are  disproved  as  fact,  they  must  be  told 
over  and  over  again  as  story. 

Roman  history  involves  a  narrative  of  social  and 
political  struggles,  the  importance  of  which  is  as 


fv  PREFACE. 

wide  as  modern  civilization,  and  they  must  not  be 
passed  over  without  some  attention,  though  in  the 
present  volume  they  cannot  be  treated  with  the 
thoroughness  they  deserve.  The  story  has  the  ad- 
vantage of  being  to  a  great  extent  a  narrative  of  the 
exploits  of  heroes,  and  the  attention  can  be  held 
almost  the  whole  time  to  the  deeds  of  particular 
actors  who  successively  occupy  the  focus  or  play  the 
principal  parts  on  the  stage.  In  this  way  the  ele- 
ment of  personal  interest,  which  so  greatly  adds  to 
the  charm  of  a  story,  may  be  infused  into  the  nar- 
rative. 

It  is  hoped  to  enter  to  some  degree  into  the  real 
life  of  the  Roman  people,  to  catch  the  true  spirit  of 
their  actions,  and  to  indicate  the  current  of  the 
national  life,  while  avoiding  the  presentation  of 
particular  episodes  or  periods  with  undue  promi- 
nence. It  is  intended  to  set  down  the  facts  in  their 
proper  relation  to  each  other  as  well  as  to  the  facts 
of  general  history,  without  attempting  an  incursion 
into  the  domain  of  philosophy. 

A.G. 

CAMBRIDGE,  September,  1885. 


CONTENTS. 


I. 

PACa 

ONCE  UPON  A  TIME 1-15 

The  old  king  at  Troy,  i — Paris,  the  wayward  youth,  2 — 
Helen  carried  off,  2 — The  war  of  ten  years,  2 — .^Eneas,  son 
of  Anchises,  goes  to  Italy,  4 — His  death,  4 — Fact  and  fiction 
in  early  stories,  5 — I  low  Milton  wrote  about  early  England, 
5 — How  ./Eneas  was  connected  with  England,  6 — Virgil 
writes  about  /Eneas,  7 — How  Livy  wrote  about  yEneas,  7 — 
Was  ^Eneas  a  son  of  Venus  ?  8 — Italy,  as  ./Eneas  would  have 
seen  it,  8 — Greeks  in  Italy,  9 — How  Evander  came  from 
Arcadia,  9 — How  ^Eneas  died,  10 — Thirty  cities  rise,  n — 
Twins  and  a  she-wolf,  12 — Trojan  names  in  Italy,  13 — 
How  the  Romans  named  their  children  and  themselves,  14. 

II. 

How  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY          .         16-38 

Augury  resorted  to,  16 — Romulus  and  Remus  on  two  hills, 
17 — Vultures  determine  a  question,  17 — Pales,  god  of  the 
shepherds,  18 — Beginning  the  city,  19 — Celer  killed,  20— 
An  asylum,  20 — Bachelors  want  wives,  21 — A  game  of  wife- 
snatching,  22 — Sabines  wish  their  daughters  back,  22 — Tar- 
peia  on  the  hill,  23 — A  duel  between  two  hills,  24 — Two 
men  named  Curtius,  25 — Women  interfere  for  peace,  26 — 
Where  did  Rcmulus  go?  27 — Society  divided  by  Romulus, 
28 — Numa  Pompilius  chosen  king,  29 — Laws  of  religion 
given  the  people,  30 — Guilds  established,  31 — The  year  di- 
vided into  months,  32 — Tullus  Hostilius  king,  33 — Six 
brothers  fight,  34 — Horatia  killed,  36 — Ancus  Martius  king, 
37 — The  wooden  bridge,  38. 


vi  CONTENTS. 

III. 

PAGE 

How  CORINTH  GAVE  ROME  A  NEW  DYNASTY    .     39-47 

Magna  Graecia,  39 — Cypselus,  the  democratic  politician,  40 
— Demaratus  goes  to  Tarquinii,  41 — Etruscan  relics,  42 — 
Lucomo's  cap  lifted,  42 — Lucomo  changes  his  name,  43 — A 
Greek  king  of  Rome,  43 — A  circus  and  other  great  public 
works,  44 — A  light  around  a  boy's  head,  46 — Servius  Tullius 
king,  46 — How  the  kingdom  passed  from  the  Etruscan 
dynasty,  47. 

IV. 

x 

THE  RISE  OF  THE  COMMONS    ....        48-57 

A  king  of  the  plebeians,  48 — A  league  with  Latin  cities,  48 
— A  census  taken,  48 — The  Seven  Hills,  49 — Classes  formed 
among  the  people,  50 — Assemblies  of  the  people,  50 — How 
ace  means  one,  51 — Heads  of  the  people,  51 — Armor  of  the 
different  classes,  51 — A  Lustration  or  Suovetaurilia,  54 — 
What  is  a  lustrum  ?  54 — Servius  divides  certain  lands,  55 — 
A  wicked  husband  and  a  naughty  wife,  55 — King  Servius 
killed,  56 — Sprinkled  with  a  father's  blood,  57. 

V. 

How  A  PROUD  KING  FELL      ....        58-68 

A  tyrant  king,  58 — The  mysterious  Sibyl  of  Cumse  comes  to 
sell  books,  59 — The  head  found  on  the  Capitoline,  59 — A 
serpent  frightens  a  king,  60 — A  serious  inquiry  sent  to 
Delphi,  60 — A  hollow  stick  filled  with  gold  helps  a  young 
man,  62 — A  good  wife  spinning,  62 — A"  terrible  oath,  63 — 
The  Tarquins  banished,  63 — A  republic  takes  the  place  of 
the  kingdom,  64^The  first  of  the  long  line  of  consuls,  64 — 
The  good  Valerius,  65 — The  god  Silvanus  cries  out  to  some 
effect,  65 — Lars  Porsena  of  Clusium  and  what  he  tried  to  do, 
66 — Horatius  the  brave,  66— Rome  loses  land,  67 — A  dicta- 
tor appointed,  67 — Castor  and  Pollux  help  the  army  at  Lake 
Kcgillus,  67 — Caius  Marcius  wins  a  crown,  68 — Appius 
Claudius  comes  to  town,  68. 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

VI. 

PACE 

THE  ROMAN  RUNNYMEDE        ....        69-79 

The  character  of  the  Romans,  69 — Traits  of  the  kings,  70 — 
Insignificance  of  Latin  territory,  71 — Occupations,  71 — Art 
backward,  71 — A  narrow  religion,  72 — Who  were  the  popu- 
lus  Romanus  ?  73 — Patricians  oppress  the  people,  73 — 
Wrongs  of  Roman  money-lending,  74 — How  a  debtor 
flaunted  his  rags  to  good  purpose,  75 — Appius  Claudius  de- 
fied, 76 — A  secession  to  the  Anio,  77 — Apologue  of  the  body 
and  its  members,  78 — Laws  of  Valerius  re-affirmed,  78 — Tri- 
bunes of  the  people  appointed,  79 — Peace  by  the  treaty  of 
the  Sacred  Mount,  79.  , 

VII. 

How    THE    HEROES    FOUGHT    FOR    A    HUNDRED 

YEARS   . 80-97 

Coriolanus  fights  bravely,  80 — He  enrages  the  plebeians,  8r 
— Women  melt  the  strong  man's  heart,  82 — Plebeians  gain 
ground,  82 — Agrarian  laws  begin  to  be  made,  83 — Cassius, 
who  makes  the  first,  undermined,  84 — The  family  of  the 
Fabii  support  the  commons,  85 — A  black  day  on  the  Cre- 
mara,  85 — Cincinnatus  called  from  his  plow,  86 — The  ^iqui- 
ans  subjugated,  87 — What  a  conquest  meant  in  those  days, 
87 — The  Aventine  Hill  given  to  the  commons,  88 — The  ten 
men  make  ten  laws  and  afterwards  twelve,  89 — The  ten  men 
become  arrogant,  90 — How  Virginia  was  killed,  91 — Appius 
Claudius  cursed,  91 — The  second  secession  of  the  plebeians, 
92 — The  third  secession,  92 — The  commons  make  gains,  93 
Censors  chosen,  93 — The  wonderful  siege  of  Veii,  94 — How 
a  tunnel  brings  victory,  95 — Camillus  the  second  founder  of 
Rome,  96 — How  the  territory  was  increased,  but  ill  omens 
threaten,  97. 

VIII. 

A  BLAST  FROM  BEYOND  THE  NORTH  WIND    .        98-110 

What  the  Greeks  thought  when  they  shivered,  98 — A  war- 
like people  come  into  notice,  99 — Brennus  leads  the  bar- 
barians to  rictory,  joo—  A  voice  from  the  temple  of  Vesta, 


Vill  CONTENTS. 

PACE 

1OO — Tearful  Allia,  101 — The  city  alarmed  and  Camillas 
called  for,  102 — How  the  sacred  geese  chattered  to  a  pur- 
pose, 103 — Brennus  successful,  but  defeated  at  last,  104 — A 
historical  game  of  scandal,  106 — Camillas  sets  to  work  to 
make  a  new  city,  107 — Camillus  honored  as  the  second 
founder  of  Rome,  108 — Manlius  less  fortunate,  108 — Poor 
debtors  protected  by  a  law  of  Stole,  109 — A  plague  comes 
to  Rome,  and  priests  order  stage-plays  to  be  performed,  1 10 
— The  floods  of  the  Tiber  come  into  the  circus,  no. 

IX. 

How  THE  REPUBLIC  OVERCAME  ITS  NEIGHBORS,  111-125 

Alexander  the  Great  strides  over  Persia,  in — Suppose  he 
had  attacked  Rome?  112 — The  man  with  a  chain,  and  the 
man  helped  by  a  crow,  113 — How  the  Samnites  came  into 
Campania,  114 — The  memorable  battle  of  Mount  Gaums, 
114 — How  Carthage  thought  best  to  congratulate  Rome,  115 
— Debts  become  heavy  again,  115 — How  Decius  Mus  sacri- 
ficed himself  for  the  army,  116 — Misfortune  at  the  Caudine 
Forks,  117 — A  general  muddle,  in  which  another  Mus  sacri- 
fices himself,  118 — Another  secession  of  the  commons,  119 
— An  agrarian  law  and  an  abolition  of  debts,  119 — What  the 
wild  waves  washed  up,  119 — Pyrrhus,  King  of  Epirus,  takes 
a  lofty  model,  120 — How  Cineas  asked  hard  questions,  121 
— Blind  Appius  Claudius  stirs  up  the  people,  122 — Maleven- 
tum  gets  a  better  name,  123 — Ptolemy  Philadelphus  thinks 
best  to  congratulate  Rome,  123 — How  the  Romans  made 
roads,  124 — The  classes  of  citizens,  125. 

X. 

AN  AFRICAN  SIROCCO         ....         126-148 

How  an  old  Bible  city  sent  out  a  colony,  126 — Carthage  at- 
tends  strictly  to  its  own  business,  127 — Sicily  a  convenient 
place  for  a  great  fight,  128 — The  Mamertines  not  far  from 
Scyllaand  Charybdis,  129 — Ancient  war- vessels  and  how  they 
were  rowed,  130— The  prestige  of  Carthage  on  the  water 
destroyed,  132 — Xanthippus  the  Spartan  helps  the  Cartha- 


CONTENTS  IX 


gmians,  132 — The  horrible  fate  of  noble  Regulus,  133 — Ham-  i 
ilcar,  the  man  of  lightning,  comes  to  view,  133 — Gates  of 
the  temple  of  Janus  closed  the  second  time,  134 — A  perfidi- 
ous queen  overthrown,  135 — Two  Gauls  and  two  Greeks 
buried  alive,  136 — Hannibal  hates  Rome,  137 — Rome  and 
Carthage  fight  the  second  time,  138 — Scipio  and  Fabius  the 
Delayer  fight  for  Rome,  139 — Hannibal  crosses  the  Alps, 
140 — The  terrible  rout  at  Lake  Trasimenus,  142 — A  busi- 
ness man  beaten,  143 — Syracuse  falls  and  Archimedes  dies, 
144 — Fabius  takes  Tarentum,  145 — A  great  victory  at  the 
Metaurus,  146 — War  carried  to  Africa  and  closed  at  Zama, 
147 — Hannibal  a  wanderer,  148. 

XI. 

THE  NEW  PUSHES  THE  OLD — WARS  AND  CON- 
QUESTS                149-166 

Tumultuous  women  stir  up  the  city,  149 — What  the  Oppian 
Law  fcrbade,  150 — Cato  the  Stern  opposes  the  women,  152 
— The  women  find  a  valorous  champion,  153 — How  did  the 
matrons  establish  their  high  character?  154 — Two  parties 
look  at  the  growing  influence  of  ideas  from  Greece,  156 — 
What  were  those  influences?  158 — How  Rome  coveted 
Eastern  conquests,  159 — How  Flamininus  fought  at  the 
Dog-heads,  160 — How  the  Grecians  cried  for  joy  at  the 
Isthmian  games,  161 — Great  battles  at  Thermopylae  and 
Magnesia,  and  their  results,  162 — Philopcemen,  Hannibal, 
and  Scipio  die,  163 — The  battle  of  Pydna  marks  an  era,  164 
— Greece  despoiled  of  its  works  of  art,  165 — Cato  wishes 
Carthage  destroyed,  165 — Numantia  destroyed,  166— The 
slaves  in  Sicily  give  trouble,  166. 

XII. 

A  FUTILE  EFFORT  AT  REFORM  .         .         167-184 

Scipio  gives  away  his  daughter,  167 — Tiberius  Gracchus 
serves  the  state,  168 — Romans  without  family  altars  or 
tombs,  169 — Cornelia  urges  Gracchus  to  do  somewhat  for  the 
state,  170 — Gracchus  misses  an  opportunity,  171 — Another 


X  CONTENTS. 

FAGB 

son  of  Cornelia  comes  to  the  front,  172 — The  younger 
Gracchus  builds  roads  and  makes  good  laws,  173 — Drusus 
undermines  the  reformer,  174 — Office  looked  upon  as  a  means 
of  getting  riches,  175 — Marius  and  Sulla  appear,  175 — Ju- 
gurtha  fights  and  bribes,  176 — Metellus,  the  general  of  in- 
tegrity, 178 — Marius  captures  Jugurtha,  1 80 — A  shadow 
falls  upon  Rome,  181 — A  terrible  battle  at  Vercellae,  182 — 
The  slaves  rise  again,  183 — The  Domitian  law  restricts  the 
rights  of  the  senate,  183 — The  ill-gotten  gold  of  Toulouse, 
184. 

XIII. 

SOCIAL  AND  CIVIL  WARS      ....         185-197 

The  agrarian  laws  of  Appuleius,  185 — Luxury  increases  and 
faith  falls  away,  186 — Rome  for  the  Romans,  186 — Another 
Drusus  appears,  187 — The  brave  Marsians  menace  Rome,  187 
— Ten  new  tribes  formed,  188 — A  war  with  Mithridates  of 
Pontus,  189 — Marius  and  Sulla  struggle  and  Marius  goes  to 
the  wall,  190— Sulla  besieges  Athens,  191 — Sulla  threatens 
the  senate,  192 — The  capitcl  burned,  193 — A  battle  at  the 
Colline  Gate,  193 — Proscription  and  carnage,  194 — Sulla 
makes  laws  and  retires  to  see  the  effect,  195 — A  congiarium, 
196— A  grand  funeral  and  a  cremation,  197. 

XIV. 

THE  MASTER-SPIRITS  OF  THIS  AGE      .        .         198-213 

Tendency  towards  monarchy,  198 — Sertorius  and  his  white 
fawn,  199 — Crassus  and  his  great  house,  200 — Cicero,  the 
eloquent  orator,  202 — Verres,  the  great  thief,  203 — How 
Verres  ran  away,  204 — Catiline  the  Cruel,  205 — Caesar,  the 
man  born  to  rule,  206 — Looking  for  gain  in  confusion,  207 
— Lepidus  flees  after  the  fight  of  the  Mulvian  bridge,  208 — 
How  the  two  young  men  caused  gladiators  to  fight,  209 — 
What  Spartacus  did,  210 — Six  thousand  crosses,  211— Pom- 
pey  overawes  the  senate,  212. 

XV. 
PROGRESS  OF  THE  GREAT  POMPEY        .        .        214-230 

Pompey  the  principal  citizen,  214 — Crassus  feeds  the  people 


CONTENTS.  XI 

FACE 

at  ten  thousand  tables,  216 — How  the  pirates  caught  Caesar, 
and  how  Csesar  caught  the  pirates,  217 — Gabinius  makes  a 
move,  21 8 — The  Manilian  law  sets  Pompey  further  on,  219 
— Mithri dates  fights  and  flees,  220 — Times  of  treasons, 
stratagems,  and  spoils,  221 — Catiline  plots,  222 — The  sacri- 
lege of  Clodius,  223 — Caesar  pushes  himself  to  the  front,  224 
— The  last  agrarian  law,  226 — Caesar's  success  in  Gaul,  227 
— Vercingetorix  appears,  228 — Caesar's  conquests,  229. 

XVI. 

How    THE    TRIUMVIRS    CAME    TO    UNTIMELY 

ENDS 231-254 

Pompey  builds  a  theatre,  231 — Crassus  must  make  his  mark, 
232 — Cato  against  Caesar,  234 — Curio  helps  Caesar,  235 — 
Solemn  jugglery  of  the  pontiffs,  236 — Curio  warm  enough, 
237 — At  the  Rubicon,  238 — Crossing  the  little  river,  240— 
Pompey  stamps  in  vain,  241 — Cato  flees  from  Rome,  242 — 
Metellus  stands  aside,  243 — Pompey  killed,  244 —  Veni, 
vidit  viti,  245 — Honors  and  plans  of  Caesar,  246 — The  cal- 
endar reformed,  247 — Caesar  has  too  much  ambition,  248 — 
*T  was  one  of  those  coronets,  249 — The  Ides  of  March,  250 
— Antony,  the  actor,  251 — Antony  the  chief  man  in  Rome, 
252 — What  nexc  ?  254. 

XVII. 
How  THE  REPUBLIC  BECAME  AN  EMPIRE    .         255-270 

How  Octavius  became  a  Caesar,  255 — Agrippa  and  Cicero 
give  him  their  help,  256 — Octavius  wins  the  soldiers,  and 
Cicero  launches  his  Philippics,  257 —  Antony,  Lepidus,  and 
Octavius  become  Triumvirs,  258 — Their  first  work  a  bloody 
one,  259 — Cicero  falls,  260 — Brutus  and  Cassius  defeated  at 
Philippi,  261 — Antony  forgets  Fulvia,  262 — Antony  and 
Octavius  quarrel  and  meet  for  discussion  at  Tarentum,  264 
— How  Horace  travelled  to  Brundusium,  265 — The  duration 
of  the  Triumvirate  extended  five  years,  266 — Cleopatra 
beguiles  Antony  a  second  time,  267 — The  great  battle  off 
Actium,  268 — Octavius  wins  complete  power,  and  a  new  era 
begins,  270 — The  Republic  ends,  270. 


Xli  CONTENTS. 

XVIII. 

PAGE 

SOME  MANNERS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  ROMAN 

PEOPLE      271-291 

How  did  these  people  live?  271 — The  first  Roman  house, 
272 — The  vestibule  and  the  dark  room,  274 — The  dining- 
room  and  the  parlor,  276 — Rooms  for  pictures  and  books, 
277 — Cooking  taken  out  of  ihe  atrium,  278 — How  the  houses 
were  heated  and  lighted,  279 — Life  in  a  villa,  280 — The  ex- 
travagance of  the  pleasure  villa,  281 — When  a  man  and 
a  woman  had  agreed  to  marry,  282 — How  the  bride  dressed 
and  what  the  groom  did,  283 — The  wife's  position  and  work, 
284 — The  stola  and  the  toga,  285 — Foot-gear  from  soccus  to 
cothurnus,  286 — Breakfast,  luncheon,  and  dinner,  288 — The 
formal  dinner,  289 — How  the  Romans  travelled,  and  how 
they  sought  office,  290 — The  law  and  its  penalties,  291. 

XIX. 
THE  ROMAN  READING  AND  WRITING  .        .         292-312 

Grecian  influence  on  Roman  mental  culture,  292 — Text- 
books, 293 — Cato  and  Varro  on  education,  294 — Dictation 
and  copy-books,  295 — The  early  writers,  295 — Fabius  Pic- 
tor,  297 — Plautus,  297 — Terence,  298 — Atellan  plays,  298 — 
Cicerf  's  works,  299 — Varro's  works,  300 — Caesar  and  Catul- 
lus,  302 — Lucretius,  303 — Ovid  and  Tihullus,  304 — Sallust, 
305 — Livy,  306 — Horace,  307 — Cornelius  Nepos,  308 — Vir- 
gil and  his  works,  309 — Life  at  the  villa  of  Maecenas,  311. 

XX. 

THE     ROMAN      REPUBLICANS     SERIOUS      AND 

GAY   .  ....        312-132 

The  will  of  the  gods  sought  for,  312 — The  first  temples,  31? 
— Festivals  in  the  first  month,  314 — Vinalia  and  Saturnalia. 
314 — Fires  of  Vulcan  and  Vesta,  315 — Matronly  and  family 
services,  316 — No  mythology  at  first,  317 — Colleges  of 
priests  needed,  318 — An  incursion  of  Greek  philosophers, 
319 — Games  of  childhood,  320 — Checkers  and  other  games 
of  chance,  321 — The  people  cry  for  games,  322 — Games  in 


CONTENTS. 


xiii 


the  circus,  323 — The  amphitheatre  invented,  325 — Men  and 
beasts  fight,  326 — Funeral  ceremonies,  326 — Charon  paid, 
327 — The  mourning  procession,  329 — Inurning  the  ashes, 
329 — The  columbarium,  330 — The  Roman  May-day,  331— 
Change  from  rustic  simplicity  to  urban  orgies,  332. 

INDEX 333 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

MAP    OF    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE I 

MAP    OF    ANCIENT    ROME 332 

VIEW  OF  THE  COLOSSEUM  AND  PORTION  OF  MODERN 

ROME         ......         Frontispiece 

THE    PLAIN    OF    TROY    IN    MODERN    TIMES            .            .  3 

ROMAN  GIRLS  WITH  A  STYLUS  AND  WRITING-TABLET,  23 

A    ROMAN    ALTAR      31 

MONUMENT  OF    THE    HORATII    AND  THE    CURIATII    .  35 
MOUTH    OF    THE    CLOACA     MAXIMA    AT    THE    TIBER, 

AND    THE    SO-CALLED    TEMPLE    OF    VESTA             .  45 

ROMAN    SOLDIERS,  COSTUMES    AND    ARMOR         .            .  53 

-THE    RAVINE   OF    DELPHI              .            .            .            .            .  "7>I~ 

THE   CAPITOL    RESTORED 105 

ROMAN    STREET    PAVEMENT 1 2ff 

A    PHOENICIAN    VESSEL  (TRIREME)      .  .  .  .126 

A    ROMAN    WAR-VESSEL      .  .  .  .  .131 

HANNIBAL 137 

TERENCE,  THE    LAST    ROMAN    COMIC    POET         .            .  141 

PUBLIUS   CORNELIUS   SCIPIO    AFRICANUS              .            .  145 

A    ROMAN    MATRON              Igl 

ROMAN  HEAD-DF  ESSES    ......  IS  5 

GLADIATORS  AT  A  FUNERAL          ....  J57 

ACTORS'  MASKS        . ^59 

A  ROMAN  MILE-STONE 173 

IN  A  ROMAN  STUDY  177 


XVI  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PLAN  OF  A  ROMAN  CAMP  IN  THE  TIME  OF  THE 
REPUBLIC 

POMPEY  (CNEIUS    POMPEIUS    MAGNUS) 

CAIUS   JULIUS   CAESAR          .  .... 

GLADIATORS 

TRIUMPHAL    PROCESSION    OF    A    ROMAN    GENERAL    . 

INTERIOR    OF    A    ROMAN    HOUSE         .... 

A    ROMAN    POETESS 

THE    FORUM    ROMANUM    IN    MODERN    TIMES       . 

AN    ELEPHANT    IN    ARMOR  (SEE    PAGE    122)        . 

ITALIAN  AND  GERMAN  ALLIES,  COSTUMES  AND 
ARMOR  

INTERIOR  OF  THE  FORUM   ROMANUM 

MARCUS  TULLIUS  CICERO 

CLEOPATRA'S  SHOW  SHIP 

ANCIENT  STATUE  OF  AUGUSTUS    .... 
THE  HOUSE-PHILOSOPHER  (SEE  PAGE  277) 
DINING-TABLE  AND  COUCHES          .... 
COVERINGS  FOR  THE  FEET      ..... 
ARTICLES  OF  THE  ROMAN  TOILET 
RUINS  OF  THE  COLOSSEUM,  SEEN  FROM  THE  PALA- 
TINE HILL 

A  COLUMBARIUM 


20  15  /O  5  o  5  /O  i5 


2S          30          35  40          45  SO  S5  60 


THE  STORY  OF  ROME. 


i. 


ONCE   UPON  A   TIME. 

ONCE  upon  a  time,  there  lived  in  a  city  of  Asia 
Minor,  not  far  from  Mount  Ida,  as  old  Homer  tells 
us  in  his  grand  and  beautiful  poem,  a  king  who  had 
fifty  sons  and  many  daughters.  How  large  his 
family  was,  indeed,  we  cannot  say,  for  the  story- 
tellers of  the  olden  time  were  not  very  careful  to  set 
down  the  actual  and  exact  truth,  their  chief  object 
being  to  give  the  people  something  to  interest  them. 
That  they  succeeded  well  in  this  respect  we  know, 
beer,  se  the  story  of  this  old  king  and  his  great 
family  of  sons  and  daughters  has  been  told  and  re- 
told thousands  of  times  since  it  was  first  related,  and 
that  was  so  long  ago  that  the  bard  himself  has  some- 
times been  said  never  to  have  lived  at  all.  Still, 
somebody  must  have  existed  who  told  the  wondrous 
story,  and  it  has  always  been  attributed  to  a  blind 
poet,  to  whom  the  name  Homer  has  been  given. 

The  place  in  which  the  old  king  and  his  great 
family  live'-  was  Tlium,  though  it  is  better  known  as 
Troja  or  Troy,  because  that  is  the  name  that  the 


2  ONCE    UPON  A    TIME. 

Roman  people  used  for  it  in  later  times.  One  of 
the  sons  of  Priam,  for  that  was  the  name  of  this 
king,  was  Paris,  who,  though  very  handsome,  was  a 
wayward  and  troublesome  youth.  He  once  jour- 
neyed to  Greece  to  find  a  wife,  and  there  fell  in  love 
with  a  beautiful  daughter  of  Jupiter,  named  Helen. 
She  was  already  married  to  Menelaus,  the  Prince  of 
Lacedaemonia  (brother  of  another  famous  hero,  Aga- 
memnon), who  had  most  hospitably  entertained 
young  Paris,  but  this  did  not  interfere  with  his 
carrying  her  off  to  Troy.  The  wedding  journey  was 
made  by  the  roundabout  way  of  Phoenicia  and  Egypt, 
but  at  last  the  couple  reached  home  with  a  large 
amount  of  treasure  taken  from  the  hospitable 
Menelaus. 

This  wild  adventure  led  to  a  war  of  ten  years 
between  the  Greeks  and  King  Priam,  for  the  rescue 
of  the  beautiful  Helen.  Menelaus  and  some  of  his 
countrymen  at  last  contrived  to  conceal  themselves 
in  a  hollow  wooden  horse,  in  which  they  were  taken 
into  Troy.  Once  inside,  it  was  an  easy  task  to  open 
the  gates  and  let  the  whole  army  in  also.  The  city  was 
then  taken  and  burned.  Menelaus  was  naturally  one 
of  the  first  to  hasten  from  the  smoking  ruins,  though 
he  was  almost  the  last  to  reach  his  home.  He  lived 
afterwards  for  years  in  peace,  health,  and  happiness 
with  the  beautiful  wife  who  had  cost  him  so  much 
suffering  and  so  many  trials  to  regain. 

Among  the  relatives  of  King  Priam  was  one  An- 
chises,  a  descendant  of  Jupiter,  who  was  very  old  at 
the  time  of  the  war.  He  had  a  valiant  son,  however, 
who  fought  well  in  the  struggle,  and  the  story  of  his 


4  ONCE    UPON  A    TIME. 

deeds  was  ever  afterwards  treasured  up  among  the 
most  precious  narratives  of  all  time.  This  son  was 
named  yEneas,  and  he  was  not  only  a  descendant  of 
Jupiter,  but  also  a  son  of  the  beautiful  goddess 
Venus.  He  did  not  take  an  active  part  in  the  war 
at  its  beginning,  but  in  the  course  of  time  he  and 
Hector,  who  was  one  of  the  sons  of  the  king,  became 
the  most  prominent  among  the  defenders  of  Troy. 
After  the  destruction  of  the  city,  he  went  out  of  it, 
carrying  on  his  shoulders  his  aged  father,  Anchises, 
and  leading  by  the  hand  his  young  son,  Ascanius,  or 
lulus,  as  he  was  also  called.  He  bore  in  his  hands 
his  household  gods,  called  the  Penates,  and  began 
his  now  celebrated  wanderings  over  the  earth.  He 
found  a  resting-place  at  last  on  the  farther  coast  of 
the  Italian  peninsula,  and  there  one  day  he  marvel- 
lously disappeared  in  a  battle  on  the  banks  of  the 
little  brook  Numicius,  where  a  monument  was  erected 
to  his  memory  as  "  The  Father  and  the  Native  God." 
According  to  the  best  accounts,  the  war  of  Troy 
took  place  nearly  twelve  hundred  years  before  Christ, 
and  that  is  some  three  thousand  years  ago  now.  It 
was  before  the  time  of  the  prophet  Eli,  of  whom  we 
read  in  the  Bible,  and  long  before  the  ancient  days 
of  Samuel  and  Saul  and  David  and  Solomon,  who 
seem  so  very  far  removed  from  our  times.  There 
had  been  long  lines  of  kings  and  princes  in  China 
and  India  before  that  time,  however,  and  in  the 
hoary  land  of  Egypt  as  many  as  twenty  dynasties  of 
sovereigns  had  reigned  and  passed  away,  and  a  cer- 
tain sort  of  civilization  had  flourished  for  two  or 
three  thousand  years,  so  that  the  great  world  was 


EARLY  HISTORY  OBSCURED.  5 

not  so  young  at  that  time  as  one  might  at  first  think 
If  only  there  had  been  books  and  newspapers  in 
those  olden  days,  what  revelations  they  would  make 
to  us  now  !  They  would  tell  u£  exactly  where  Troy 
was,  which  some  of  the  learned  think  we  do  not 
know,  and  we  might,  by  their  help,  separate  fact  from 
fiction  in  the  immortal  poems  and  stories  that  are 
now  our  only  source  of  information.  It  is  not  for  us 
to  say  that  that  would  be  any  better  for  us  than  to 
know  merely  what  we  do,  for  poetry  is  elevating  and 
entertaining,  and  stirs  the  heart ;  and  who  could 
make  poetry  out  of  the  columns  of  a  newspaper,  even 
though  it  were  as  old  as  the  times  of  the  Pharaohs? 
Let  us,  then,  be  thankful  for  what  we  have,  and  take 
the  beginnings  of  history  in  the  mixed  form  of  truth 
and  fiction,  following  the  lead  of  learned  historians 
who  are  and  long  have  been  trying  to  trace  the  true 
clue  of  fact  in  the  labyrinth  of  poetic  story  with 
which  it  is  involved. 

When  the  poet  Milton  sat  down  to  write  the  his- 
tory of  that  part  of  Britain  now  called  England,  as 
he  expressed  it,  he  said  :  "  The  beginning  of  nations, 
those  excepted  of  whom  sacred  books  have  spoken, 
is  to  this  day  unknown.  Nor  only  the  beginning, 
but  the  deeds  also  of  many  succeeding  ages,  yes, 
periods  of  ages,  either  wholly  unknown  or  obscured 
or  blemished  with  fables."  Why  this  is  so  the  great 
poet  did  not  pretend  to  tell,  but  he  thought  that  it 
might  be  because  people  did  not  know  how  to  write 
in  the  first  ages,  or  because  their  records  had  been 
lost  in  wars  and  by  the  sloth  and  ignorance  that  fol- 
lowed them.  Perhaps  men  did  not  think  that  the 


6  ONCE   UPON  A    TIME. 

records  of  their  own  times  were  worth  preserving 
when  they  reflected  how  base  and  corrupt,  how  petty 
and  perverse  such  deeds  would  appear  to  those  who 
should  come  after  them.  For  whatever  reason,  Mil- 
ton said  that  it  had  come  about  that  some  of  the 
stories  that  seemed  to  be  the  oldest  were  in  his  day 
regarded  as  fables  ;  but  that  he  did  not  intend  to 
pass  them  over,  because  that  which  one  antiquary 
admitted  as  true  history,  another  exploded  as  mere 
fiction,  and  narratives  that  had  been  once  called 
fables  were  afterward  found  to  "  contain  in  them 
many  footsteps  and  reliques  of  something  true,"  as 
what  might  be  read  in  poets  "  of  the  flood  and 
giants,  little  believed,  till  undoubted  witnesses  taught 
us  that  all  was  not  feigned."  For  such  reasons  Mil- 
ton determined  to  tell  over  the  old  stories,  if  for  no 
other  purpose  than  that  they  might  be  of  service  to 
the  poets  and  romancers  who  knew  how  to  use  them 
judiciously.  He  said  that  he  did  not  intend  even  to 
stop  to  argue  and  debate  disputed  questions,  but, 
"  imploring  divine  assistance,"  to  relate,"  with  plain 
and  lightsome  brevity,"  those  things  worth  noting. 

After  all  this  preparation  Milton  began  his  history 
of  England  at  the  Flood,  hastily  recounted  the  facts 
to  the  time  of  the  great  Trojan  war,  and  then  said 
that  he  had  arrived  at  a  period  when  the  narrative 
could  not  be  so  hurriedly  dispatched.  He  showed 
how  the  old  historians  had  gone  back  to  Troy  for  the 
beginnings  of  the  English  race,  and  had  chosen  a 
great-grandson  of  ^Eneas,  named  Brutus,  as  the  one 
by  whom  it  should  be  attached  to  the  right  royal 
heroes  of  Homer's  poem.  Thus  we  see  how  firm  a 


VIRGIL  AND  LIVY.  7 

hold  upon  the  imagination  of  the  world  the  tale  of 
Troy  had  after  twenty-seven  hundred  years. 

Twenty-five  or  thirty  years  before  the  birth  of 
Christ  there  was  in  Rome  another  p,oet,  named 
Virgil,  writing  about  the  wanderings  of  tineas.  He 
began  his  beautiful  story  with  these  words:  "Arms  I 
sing,  and  the  hero,  who  first,  exiled  by  fate,  came 
from  the  coast  of  Troy  to  Italy  and  the  Lavinian 
shore."  He  then  went  on  to  tell  in  beautiful  words 
the  story  of  the  wanderings  of  his  hero, — a  tale  that 
has  now  been  read  and  re-read  for  nearly  two  thousand 
years,  by  all  who  have  wished  to  call  themselves 
educated ;  generations  of  school-boys,  and  school- 
girls too,  have  slowly  made  their  way  through  the 
Latin  of  its  twelve  books.  This  was  another  evi- 
dence of  the  strong  hold  that  the  story  of  Troy  had 
upon  men,  as  well  as  of  the  honor  in  which  the 
heroes,  and  descent  from  them,  were  held. 

In  the  generation  after  Virgil  there  arose  a  graphic 
writer  named  Livy,  who  wrote  a  long  history  of 
Rome,  a  large  portion  of  which  has  been  preserved 
to  our  own  day.  Like  Virgil,  Livy  traced  the  origin 
of  the  Latin  people  to  ^Eneas,  and  like  Milton,  he 
re-told  the  ancient  stories,  saying  that  he  had  no  in- 
tention of  affirming  or  refuting  the  traditions  that 
had  come  down  to  his  time  of  what  had  occurred 
before  the  building  of  the  city,  though  he  thought 
them  rather  suitable  for  the  fictions  of  poetry  than 
for  the  genuine  records  of  the  historian.  He  added, 
that  it  was  an  indulgence  conceded  to  antiquity  to 
blend  human  things  with  things  divine,  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  the  origin  of  cities  appear  more 


ONCE    UPON  A    TIME. 

venerable.  .This  principle  is  much  the  same  as  that 
on  which  Milton  wrote  his  history,  and  it  seems  a 
very  good  one.  Let  us,  therefore,  follow  it. 

In  the  narrative  of  events  for  several  hundred 
years  after  the  city  of  Rome  was  founded,  accord, 
ing  to  the  early  traditions,  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish 
truth  from  fiction,  though  a  skilful  historian  (and 
many  such  there  have  been)  is  able,  by  reading  his- 
tory backwards,  to  make  up  his  mind  as  to  what  is 
probable  and  what  seems  to  belong  only  to  the 
realm  of  myth.  It  does  not,  for  example,  seem 
probable  that  ALneas  was  the  son  of  the  goddess 
Venus;  and  it  seems  clear  that  a  great  many  of  the 
stories  that  are  mixed  with  the  early  history  of  Rome 
were  written  long  after  the  events  they  pretend  to 
record,  in  order  to  account  for  customs  and  observ- 
ances of  the  later  days.  Some  of  these  we  shall 
notice  as  we  go  on  with  our  pleasant  story. 

We  must  now  return  to  JEnea.s.  After  long  wan- 
derings and  many  marvellous  adventures,  he  arrived, 
as  has  been  said,  on  the  shores  of  Italy.  He  was  not 
able  to  go  rapidly  about  the  whole  country,  as  we 
are  in  these  days  by  means  of  our  good  roads  and 
other  modes  of  communication,  but  if  he  could  have 
done  this,  he  would  have  found  that  he  had  fallen 
upon  a  land  in  which  the  inhabitants  had  come,  as  he 
had,  from  foreign  shores.  Some  of  them  were  of 
Greek  origin,  and  others  had  emigrated  from  coun- 
tries just  north  of  Italy,  though,  as  we  now  know 
that  Asia  was  the  cradle  of  our  race,  and  especially 
of  that  portion  of  it  that  has  peopled  Europe,  we 
suppose  that  all  the  dwellers  on  the  boot-shaped 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ITALIA.  9 

peninsula  had  their  origin  on  that  mysterious  conti- 
nent at  some  early  period. 

If  ^Eneas  could  have  gone  to  the  southern  part  of 
Italy, — to  that  part  from  which  travellers  now  take 
the  steamships  for  the  East  at  Brindisi,  he  would 
have  found  some  of  the  emigrants  from  the  Ncrth. 
If  he  had  gone  to  the  north  of  the  river  Tiber,  he 
would  have  seen  a  mixed  population  enjoying  a 
greater  civilization  than  the  others,  the  aristocracy 
of  which  had  come  also  from  the  northern  mountains, 
though  the  common  people  were  from  Greece  or  its 
colonies.  These  people  of  Greek  descent  were 
called  Etruscans,  and  it  has  been  discovered  that 
they  had  advanced  so  far  in  civilization,  that  they 
afterwards  gave  many  of  their  customs  to  the  city  of 
Rome  when  it  came  to  power.  A  confederacy  known 
as  the  "  Twelve  Cities  of  Etruria "  became  famous 
afterwards,  though  no  one  knows  exactly  which  the 
twelve  were.  Probably  they  changed  from  time  to 
time  ;  some  that  belonged  to  the  union  at  one  period, 
being  out  of  it  at  another.  It  will  be  enough  for  us 
to  remember  that  Veii,  Clusium,  Fidenae,  Volsinii, 
and  Tarquinii  were  of  the  group  of  Etruscan  cities 
at  a  later  date. 

The  central  portion  of  the  country  to  which 
-^neas  came  is  that  known  as  Italia,  the  inhabitants 
of  which  were  of  the  same  origin  as  the  Greeks.  It 
is  said  that  about  sixty  years  before  the  Trojan  war, 
King  Evander  (whose  name  meant  good  man  and 
true)  brought  a  company  from  the  land  of  Arcadia, 
where  the  people  were  supposed  to  live  in  a  state  of 
ideal  innocence  and  virtue,  to  Italia,  and  began  a  city 


1O  ONCE    UPON  A    TIME. 

on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  at  the  foot  of  the  Pala- 
tine Hill.  Evander  was  a  son  of  Mercury,  and  he 
found  that  the  king  of  the  country  he  had  come  to 
was  Turnus,  who  was  also  a  relative  of  the  immortal 
gods.  Turnus  and  Evander  became  fast  friends,  and 
it  is  £aid  that  Turnus  taught  his  neighbors  the  art  of 
writing,  which  he  had  himself  learned  from  Hercules, 
but  this  is  one  of  the  transparent  fictions  of  the 
story.  It  may  be  that  he  taught  them  music  and  the 
arts  of  social  life,  and  gave  them  good  laws.  What 
ever  became  of  good  Evander  we  do  not  know. 

The  king  of  the  people  among  whom  yEneas 
landed  was  one  Latinus,  who  became  a  friend  of  his 
noble  visitor,  giving  him  his  daughter  Lavinia  to 
wife,  though  he  had  previously  promised  her  to  Tur- 
nus. ./Eneas  named  the  town  in  which  he  lived 
Lavinium,  in  honor  of  his  wife.  Turnus  was  natu- 
rally enraged  at  the  loss  of  his  expected  bride,  and 
made  war  upon  both  ^Eneas  and  Latinus.  The  Tro- 
jan came  off  victorious,  both  the  other  warriors  being 
killed  in  the  struggle.  Thus  for  a  short  time,  yEneas 
was  left  sole  king  of  all  those  regions,  with  no  one 
to  dispute  his  title  to  the  throne  or  his  right  to  his 
wife  ;  but  the  pleasure  of  ruling  was  not  long  to  be 
his,  for  a  short  time  after  his  accession  to  power,  he 
was  killed  in  battle  on  the  banks  of  the  Numicius, 
as  has  already  been  related.  His  son  Ascanius  left 
the  low  and  unhealthy  site  of  Lavinium,  and  founded 
a  city  on  higher  ground,  which  was  called  Alba 
Longa  (the  long,  white  city),  and  the  mountain  on 
the  side  of  which  it  was,  the  Alban  mountain.  The 
new  capital  of  Ascanius  became  th?  centre  and  prin- 


SILVIA'S   TWINS.  II 

cipal  one  of  thirty  cities  that  arose  in  the  plain,  over 
all  of  which  it  seemed  to  have  authority.  Among 
these  were  Tusculum,  Praeneste,  Lavinium,  and  Ar- 
dea,  places  of  which  subsequent  history  has  much  to 
say. 

Ascanius  was  successful  in  founding  a  long  line  of 
sovereigns,  who  reigned  in  Alba  for  three  hundred 
years,  until  there  arose  one  Numitor  who  was  dis- 
possessed of  his  throne  by  a  younger  brother  named 
Amulius.  One  bad  act  usually  leads  to  another,  and 
this  case  was  no  exception  to  the  rule,  for  when 
Amulius  had  taken  his  brother's  throne,  he  still 
feared  that  the  rightful  children  might  interfere  with 
the  enjoyment  of  his  power.  Though  he  supported 
Numitor  in  comfort,  he  cruelly  killed  his  son  and 
shut  his  daughter  up  in  a  temple.  This  daughter 
was  called  Silvia,  or,  sometimes,  Rhea  Silvia. 
Wicked  men  are  not  able  generally  to  enjoy  the 
fruits  of  their  evil  doings  long,  and,  in  the  course  of 
time,  the  daughter  of  the  dethroned  Numitor  be- 
came the  mother  of  a  beautiful  pair  of  twin  boys, 
(their  father  being  the  god  of  war,  Mars,)  who 
proved  the  avengers  of  their  grandfather.  Not  im- 
mediately, however.  The  detestable  usurper  deter- 
mined to  throw  the  mother  and  her  babes  into  the 
river  Tiber,  and  thus  make  an  end  of  them,  as  well 
as  of  all  danger  to  him  from  them.  It  happened 
that  the  river  was  at  the  time  overflowing  its  banks, 
and  though  the  poor  mother  was  drowned,  the  cradle 
of  the  twins  was  caught  on  the  shallow  ground  at 
the  foot  of  the  Palatine  Hill,  at  the  very  place  where 
the  good  Evander  had  begun  his  city  so  long  before. 


12  ONCE   UPON  A    TIME. 

There  the  waifs  were  found  by  one  of  the  king's 
shepherds,  after  they  had  been,  strangely  enough, 
taken  care  of  for  a  while  by  a  she-wolf,  which  gave 
them  milk,  and  a  woodpecker,  which  supplied  them 
with  other  food.  Faustulus  was  the  name  of  this 
shepherd,  and  he  took  them  to  his  wife  Laurentia, 
though  she  already  had  twelve  others  to  care  for. 
The  brothers,  who  were  named  Romulus  and  Remus, 
grew  up  on  the  sides  of  the  Palatine  Hill  to  be  strong 
and  handsome  men,  and  showed  themselves  born 
leaders  among  the  other  shepherds,  as  they  at- 
tended to  their  daily  duties  or  fought  the  wild  ani- 
mals that  troubled  the  flocks. 

The  grandfather  of  the  twins  fed  his  herds 
on  the  Aventine  Hill,  nearer  the  river  Tiber, 
just  across  a  little  valley,  and  a  quarrel  arose  between 
his  shepherds  and  those  of  Faustulus,  in  the  course 
of  which  Remus,  was  captured  and  taken  before 
Numitor.  The  old  man  thus  discovered  the  rela- 
tionship that  existed  between  him  and  the  twins 
who  had  so  long  been  lost.  In  consequence  of  the 
discovery  of  their  origin,  and  the  right  to  the  throne 
that  was  their  father's,  they  arose  against  their  un- 
worthy uncle,  and  with  the  aid  of  their  followers, 
put  him  to  death  and  placed  Numitor  in  supreme 
authority,  where  he  rightfully  belonged.  The  twins 
had  become  attached  to  the  place  in  which- they  had 
spent  their  youth,  and  preferred  to  live  there  rather 
than  to  go  to  Alba  with  their  royal  grandfather.  He 
therefore  granted  to  them  that  portion  of  his  posses- 
sions, and  there  they  determined  to  found  a  city. 

Thus  we  hav.e  the  origin  of  the  Roman  people.    We 


A   VENERABLE  ORIGIN.  13 

see  how  the  early  traditions  "  mixed  human  things 
with  things  divine,"  as  Livy  said  had  been  done  to 
make  the  origin  of  the  city  more  respectable  ;  how 
yEneas,  the  far-back  ancestor,  was  descended  from 
Jupiter  himself,  and  how  he  was  a  son  of  Venus,  the 
goddess  of  love.  How  Romulus  and  Remus,  the  actual 
founders,  were  children  of  the  god  of  war,  and  thus 
naturally  fitted  to  be  the  builders  of  a  nation  that 
was  to  be  strong  and  to  conquer  all  known  peoples 
on  earth.  The  effort  to  ascribe  to  their  nation  an 
origin  that  should  appear  venerable  to  all  who  be- 
lieved the  stories  of  the  gods  and  goddesses,  was  re- 
markably successful,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  it 
gave  inspiration  to  the  Roman  people  long  after  the 
worship  of  those  divinities  had  become  a  matter  of 
form,  if  not  even  of  ridicule. 

This  was  not  all  that  was  done,  however,  to  es- 
tablish the  faith  in  the  old  stories  in  the  minds  of 
the  people.  In  some  way  that  it  is  not  easy  to  ex- 
plain, the  names  of  the  first  heroes  were  fixed  upon 
certain  localities,  just  as  those  of  the  famous  British 
hero,  King  Arthur,  have  long  been  fixed  upon  places 
in  Brittany,  Cornwall,  and  Southern  Scotland.  We 
find  at  a  little  place  called  Metapontem,  the  tools 
used  by  Epeus  in  making  the  wooden  horse  that  was 
taken  into  Troy.  The  bow  and  arrows  of  Hercules 
were  preserved  at  Thurii,  near  Sybaris  ;  the  tomb  of 
Philoctetes,  who  inherited  these  weapons  of  the  hero, 
was  at  Macalla,  in  Bruttium,  not  far  from  Crotona, 
where  Pythagoras  had  lived  ;  the  head  of  the  Caly- 
donian  Boar  was  at  Beneventum,  east  of  Capua,  and 
the  Erymanthian  Boar's  tusks  were  at  Cumae,  cele- 


14  ONCE   UPON  A    TIME. 

brated  for  its  Sibyl ;  the  armor  of  Diomede,  one  of 
the  Trojan  heroes,  was  at  Luceria,  in  the  vicinity  of 
Cannae ;  the  cup  of  Ulysses  and  the  tomb  of  El- 
penor  were  at  Circei,  on  the  coast ;  the  ships  of 
^Eneas  and  his  Penates  were  at  Lavinium,  fifteen 
miles  south  of  Rome ;  and  the  tomb  of  the  hero 
himself  was  at  a  spot  between  Ardea  and  Lavinium, 
on  the  banks  of  the  brook  Numicius.  Most  men  are 
interested  in  relics  of  olden  times,  and  these,  so  many 
and  of  such  great  attractiveness,  were  doubtless 
strong  proofs  to  the  average  Roman,  ready  to  think 
well  of  his  ancestors,  that  tradition  told  a  true  story. 

As  we  read  the  histories  of  other  nations  than  our 
own,  we  are  struck  by  the  strangeness  of  many  of 
the  circumstances.  They  appear  foreign  (or  "  out- 
landish," as  our  great-grandparents  used  to  say),  and 
it  is  difficult  to  put  ourselves  in  the  places  of  the 
people  we  read  of,  especially  if  they  belong  to 
ancient  times.  Perhaps  the  names  of  persons  and 
places  give  us  as  much  trouble  as  any  thing.  It 
seems  to  us,  perhaps,  that  the  Romans  gave  their 
children  too  many  names,  and  they  often  added  to 
them  themselves  when  they  had  grown  up.  They 
did  not  always  write  their  names  out  in  full ;  some- 
times they  called  each  other  by  only  one  of  them, 
and  at  others  by  several.  Marcus  Tullius  Cicero  was 
sometimes  addressed  as  "  Tullius,"  and  is  often  men- 
tioned in  old  books  as  "  Tully  "  ;  and  he  was  also 
"  M.  Tullius  Cicero."  It  was  as  if  we  were  to  write 
"  G.  Washington  Tudela,"  and  call  Mr.  Tudela  famil- 
iarly "  Washington."  This  would  cause  no  con- 


ROMAN  NAMES.  15 

fusion  at  the  time,  but  it  might  be  difficult  for  his 
descendants  to  identify  "  Washington "  as  Mr. 
Tudela,  if,  years  after  his  death,  they  were  to  read 
of  him  under  his  middle  name  only.  The  Greeks 
were  much  more  simple,  and  each  of  them  had  but 
one  name,  though  they  freely  used  nicknames  to 
describe  peculiarities  or  defects.  The  Latins  and 
Etruscans  seem  to  have  had  at  first  only  one  name 
apiece,  but  the  Sabines  had  two,  and  in  later  times 
the  Sabine  system  was  generally  followed.  A  Roman 
boy  had,  therefore,  a  given  name  and  a  family  name, 
which  were  indispensable  ;  but  he  might  have  two 
others,  descriptive  of  some  peculiarity  or  remarkable 
event  in  his  life — as  "  Scaevola,"  left-handed  ;  "  Cato," 
or  "  Sapiens,"  wise ;  "  Coriolanus,"  of  Corioli.  "  Ap- 
pius  Claudius  Sabinus  Regillensis  "  means  Appius  of 
the  Claudian  family  of  Regillum,  in  the  country  of 
the  Sabines.  "  Lucius  Cornelius  Scipio  Africanus  " 
means  Lucius,  of  the  Cornelian  family,  and  of  the 
particular  branch  of  the  Scipios  who  won  fame  in 
Africa.  These  were  called  the  pranomen  (forename), 
nomen  (name),  cognomen  (surname),  and  agnomen 
(added  name). 


II. 

HOW  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY. 

THE  proverbs  says  that  Rome  was  not  built  in 
a  day.  It  was  no  easy  task  for  the  twins  to  agree  just 
where  they  should  even  begin  the  city.  Romulus 
thought  that  the  Palatine  Hill,  on  which  he  and  his 
brother  had  lived,  was  the  most  favorable  spot  for  the 
purpose,  while  Remus  inclined  no  less  decidedly  in 
favor  of  the  Aventine,  on  which  Numitor  had  fed  his 
flocks.  In  this  emergency,  they  seem  to  have  asked 
counsel  of  their  grandfather,  and  he  advised  them  to 
settle  the  question  by  recourse  to  augury,*  a  practice 
of  the  Etrurians  with  which  they  were  probably  quite 
familiar,  for  they  had  been  educated,  we  are  told,  at 
Gabii,  the  largest  of  the  towns  of  Latium,  where  all 
the  knowledge  of  the  region  was  known  to  the 
teachers. 

Following  this  advice,  the  brothers  took  up  posi- 
tions at  a  given  time  on  the  respective  hills,  sur- 
rounded by  their  followers ;  those  of  Romulus  being 

*  Augury  was  at  first  a  system  of  divining  by  birds,  but  in  time  the 
observation  of  other  signs  was  included.  At  first  no  plebeians  could 
take  the  auspices,  as  they  seem  to  have  had  no  share  in  the  divinities 
whose  will  was  sought,  but  in  the  year  300,  B.C.,  the  college  of  augurs, 
then  comprising  four  patricians,  was  enlarged  by  the  admission  of  five 
plebeians.  The  augurs  were  elected  for  life. 


ON   TWO  ROMAN  HILLS.  1 7 

known  as  the  Quintilii,  and  those  of  Remus  as  the 
Fabii.  Thus,  in  anxious  expectation,  they  waited  for 
the  passage  of  certain  birds  which  was  to  settle  the 
question  between  them.  We  can  imagine  them  as 
they  waited.  The  two  hills  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the 
city,  and  probably  the  two  groups  were  about  half 
a  mile  apart.  On  one  side  of  them  rolled  the  muddy 
waters  of  the  Tiber,  from  which  they  had  been 
snatched  when  infants,  and  around  them  rose  the 
other  elevations  over  which  the  "  seven-hilled  "  city 
of  the  future  was  destined  to  spread.  From  morn- 
ing to  evening  they  patiently  watched,  but  in  vain. 
Through  the  long  April  night,  too,  they  held  their 
posts,  and  as  the  sun  of  the  second  day  rose  over  the 
Coelian  Hill,  Remus  beheld  with  exultation  six  vul- 
tures swiftly  flying  through  the  air,  and  thought  that 
surely  fortune  had  decided  in  his  favor.  The  vulture 
was  a  bird  seldom  seen,  and  one  that  never  did 
damage  to  crops  or  cattle,  and  for  this  reason  its  ap- 
pearance was  looked  upon  as  a  good  augury.  The 
passage  of  the  six  vultures  did  not,  however,  settle 
this  dispute,  as  Numitor  expected  it  would,  for 
Romulus,  when  he  heard  that  Remus  had  seen  six, 
asserted  that  twelve  had  flown  by  him.  His  follow- 
ers supported  this  claim,  and  determined  that  the 
city  should  be  begun  on  the  Palatine  Hill.  It  is  said 
that  this  hill,  from  which  our  word  palace  has  come, 
received  its  name  from  the  town  of  Pallantium,  in 
Arcadia,  from  which  Evander  came  to  Italy. 

The  twenty-first  of  April  was  a  festal  day  among 
the  shepherds,  and  it  was  chosen  as  the  one  on  which 
the  new  city  should  be  begun  (753  B.C.).  In  the 


l8      HOW  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY. 

morning  of  the  day,  it  was  customary,  so  they  say, 
for  the  country  people  to  purify  themselves  by  fire 
and  smoke,  by  sprinkling  themselves  with  spring 
water,  by  formal  washing  of  their  hands,  and  by 
drinking  milk  mixed  with  grape-juice.  During  the 
S  day  they  offered  sacrifices,  consisting  of  cakes,  milk, 
and  other  eatables,  to  Pales,  the  god  of  the  shepherds. 
Three  times,  with  faces  turned  to  the  east,  a  long 
prayer  was  repeated  to  Pales,  asking  blessings  upon 

\\  \3    the  flocks  and  herds,  and  pardon  for  any  offences 

\  ^"—committed  against  the  nymphs  of  the  streams,  the 

\       dryads  of  the  woods,  and  the  other  deities  of  the 

Italian  Olympus.     This  over,  bonfires  of   hay  and 

Ptn\Xr*  straw  were  lighted,  music  was  made  with  cymbal  and 
flute,  and  shepherds  and  sheep  were  purified  by  pass- 
ing through  the  flames.  A  feast  followed,  the  simple 
folk  lying  on  benches  of  turf,  and  indulging  in  gen- 
erous draughts  of  their  homely  wines,  such,  probably, 
as  the  visitor  to-day  may  regale  himself  with  in  the 
same  region.  Towards  evening,  the  flocks  were  fed, 
the  stables  were  cleansed  and  sprinkled  with  water 
with  laurel  brooms,  and  laurel  boughs  were  hung 
about  them  as  adornments.  Sulphur,  incense,  rose- 
mary, and  fir-wood  were  burned,  and  the  smoke  made 
to  pass  through  the  stalls  to  purify  them,  and  even 
the  flocks  themselves  were  submitted  to  the  same 
cleansing  fumes. 

The  beginning  of  a  city  in  the  olden  time  was  a 
serious  matter,  and  Romulus  felt  the  solemnity  of 
•   the  acts  in  which  he  was  about  to  engage.     He  sent 
men  to  Etruria,  from  which  land  the  religious  cus- 
toms of  the  Romans  largely  came,  to  obtain  for  him 


ROMULUS  PRAYS   TO   JUPITER.  I£ 

the   minute   details   of    the    rites   suitable   for  the 
occasion. 

At  the  proper  moment  he  began  the  Etrurian 
ceremonies,  by  digging  a  circular  pit  down  to  the 
hard  clay,  into  which  were  cast  with  great  solemnity 
some  of  the  first-fruits  of  the  season,  and  also  hand- 
fuls  of  earth,  each  man  throwing  in  a  little  from  the 
country  from  which  he  had  come.  The  pit  was  then 
filled  up,  and  over  it  an  altar  was  erected,  upon  the 
hearth  of  which  a  fire  was  kindled.  Thus  the  centre 
of  the  new  city  was  settled  and  consecrated.  Rom- 
ulus then  harnessed  a  white  cow  and  a  snow-white 
bull  to  a  plow  with  a  brazen  share,  and  holding  the 
handle  himself,  traced  the  line  of  the  future  walls 
with  a  furrow  (called  the  pomcerium  *),  carrying  the 
plow  over  the  places  where  gates  were  to  be  left, 
and  causing  those  who  followed  to  see  that  every 
furrow  as  it  fell  was  turned  inwards  toward  the  city. 
As  he  plowed,  Romulus  uttered  the  following 
prayer : 

Do  thou,  Jupiter,  aid  me  as  I  found  this  city ; 
and  Mavors  [that  is,  Mars,  the  god  of  war  and 
protector  of  agriculture],  my  father,  and  Vesta, 
my  mother,  and  all  other,  ye  deities,  whom  it  is 
a  religious  duty  to  invoke,  attend ;  let  this  work 
of  mine  rise  under  your  auspices.  Long  may  be 
its  duration ;  may  its  sway  be  that  of  an  all- 
ruling  land ;  and  under  it  may  be  both  the 
rising  and  the  setting  of  the  day. 

It  is  said  that  Jupiter  sent  thunder  from  one  side 

*  Pomcerium  is  composed  of  post,  behind,  and  murus,  a  wall. 
The  word  is  often  used  as  meaning  simply  a  boundary  or  limit  of 
jurisdiction.  The  pomcerium  of  Rome  was  several  times  enlarged. 


20      HO IV  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY. 

of  the  heavens  and  lightnings  from  the  other,  and 
that  the  people  rejoiced  in  the  omens  as  good  and 
went  on  cheerfully  building  the  walls.  The  poet 
Ovid  says  that  the  work  of  superintending  the  build- 
ing was  given  to  one  Celer,  who  was  told  by  Romulus 
to  let  no  one  pass  over  the  furrow  of  the  plow. 
Remus,  ignorant  of  this,  began  to  scoff  at  the  lowly 
beginning,  and  was  immediately  struck  down  by 
Celer  with  a  spade.  Romulus  bore  the  death  of  his 
brother  "  like  a  Roman,"  with  great  fortitude,  and, 
swallowing  down  his  rising  tears,  exclaimed  :  "  So 
let  it  happen  to  all  who  pass  over  my  walls  !  " 

Plutarch,  who  is  very  fond  of  tracing  the  origin  of 
words,  says  that  Celer  rushed  away  from  Rome,  fear- 
ing vengeance,  and  did  not  rest  until  he  had  reached 
the  limits  of  Etruria,  and  that  his  name  became  the 
synonym  for  quickness,  so  that  men  swift  of  foot 
were  called  Celeres  by  the  Romans,  just  as  we  still 
speak  of  "  celerity,"  meaning  rapidity  of  motion. 
Thus  the  walls  of  the  new  city  were  laid  in  blood. 

In  one  respect  early  Rome  was  like  our  own  coun- 
try, for  Plutarch  says  that  it  was  proclaimed  an 
asylum  to  which  any  who  were  oppressed  might 
resort  and  be  safe  ;  but  it  was  more,  for  all  who  had 
incurred  the  vengeance  of  the  law  were  also  taken  in 
and  protected  from  punishment.  Romulus  is  said 
to  have  erected  in  a  wood  a  temple  to  a  god  called 
Asylaeus,  where  he  "  received  and  protected  all,  de- 
livering none  back — neither  the  servant  to  his  master, 
the  debtor  to  his  creditor,  nor  the  murderer  into  the 
hands  of  the  magistrate ;  saying  it  was  a  privileged 
place,  and  they  could  so  maintain  it  by  an  order  of 


A   COLONY  OF  BACHELORS.  21 

the  holy  oracle ;  insomuch  that  the  city  grew  pres- 
ently very  populous."  It  was  men,  of  course,  who 
took  advantage  of  this  asylum,  for  who  ever  heard  of 
women  who  would  rush  in  great  numbers  to  such  a 
place  ?  Rome  was  a  colony  of  bachelors,  and  some 
of  them  pretty  poor  characters  too,  so  that  there  did 
not  seem  to  be  a  very  gcod  chance  that  they  could 
find  women  willing  to  become  their  wives.  Romu- 
lus, like  many  an  ardent  lover  since,  evidently 
thought  that  all  was  fair  in  love  and  war,  and,  after 
failing  in  all  his  efforts  to  lead  the  neighboring  peo- 
ples to  allow  the  Roman  men  to  marry  their  women, 
he  gave  it  out  that  he  had  discovered  the  altar  of 
the  god  Census,  who  presided  over  secret  delibera- 
tions,— a  very  suitable  divinity  to  come  up  at  the 
juncture, — and  that  he  intended  to  celebrate  his  feast. 
Consus  was  honored  on  the  twenty-first  of  August, 
and  this  celebration  would  come,  therefore,  just  four 
months  after  the  foundation  of  the  city.  There 
were  horse  and  chariot  races,  and  libations  which 
were  poured  into  the  flames  that  consumed  the 
sacrifices.  The  people  of  the  country  around  Rome 
were  invited  to  take  part  in  the  novel  festivities,  and 
they  were  nothing  loth  to  come,  for  they  had  con- 
siderable curiosity  to  see  what  sort  of  a  city  had  so 
quickly  grown  up  on  the  Palatine  Hill.  They  felt  no 
solicitude,  though  perhaps  some  might  have  thought 
of  the  haughtiness  with  which  they  had  refused  the 
offers  of  matrimony  made  to  their  maidens.  Still, 
it  was  safe,  they  thought,  to  attend  a  fair  under  the 
protection  of  religion,  and  so  they  went, — they  and 
their  wives  and  their  daughters. 


22      HOW  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY. 

At  a  signal  from  Romulus,  when  the  games  were  at 
the  most  exciting  stage,  and  the  strangers  were  scat- 
tered about  among  the  Romans,  each  follower  of 
Romulus  siezed  the  maiden  that  he  had  selected,  and 
carried  her  off.  It  is  said  that  as  the  men  made  the 
siezure,  they  cried  out,  "  Talasia ! "  which  means  spin- 
ning, and  that  at  all  marriages  in  Rome  afterwards, 
that  word  formed  the  refrain  of  a  song,  sung  as  the 
bride  was  approaching  her  husband's  house.  We  can- 
not imagine  the  disturbance  with  which  the  festival 
broke  up,  as  the  distracted  strangers  found  out  that 
they  were  the  victims  of  a  trick,  and  that  their  loved 
daughters  had  been  taken  from  them.  They  called  in 
vain  upon  the  god  in  whose  honor  they  had  come,  and 
they  listened  with  suppressed  threats  of  vengeance  to 
Romulus,  as  he  boldly  went  about  among  them  tell- 
ing them  that  it  was  owing  to  their  pride  that  this 
calamity  had  fallen  upon  them,  but  that  all  would 
now  be  well  with  their  daughters.  Each  new  hus- 
band would,  he  said,  be  the  better  guardian  of  his 
bride,  because  he  would  have  to  take  the  place  with 
her  of  family  and  home  as  well  as  of  husband. 

The  brides  were  soon  comforted,  but  their  parents 
put  on  mourning  for  them  and  went  up  and  down 
through  the  neighborhood  exciting  the  inhabitants 
against  the  city  of  Romulus.  Success  crowned  their 
efforts,  and  it  was  not  long  before  Titus  Tatius,  king 
of  the  Sabines,  from  among  whose  people  most  of 
the  stolen  virgins  had  been  taken,  found  himself  at 
the  head  of  an  army  sufficient  to  attack  the  warlike 
citizens  of  the  Palatine.  He  was  not  so  prompt, 
however,  as  his  neighbors,  and  two  armies  from  Latin 


TARPEIA    COVETS.  2$ 

cities  had  been  collected  and  sent  against  Romulus, 
and  had  been  met  and  overcome  by  him,  before  his 
arrangements  were  completed ;  the  people  being 
admitted  to  Rome  as  citizens,  and  thus  adding  to 
the  already  increasing  power  of  the  community. 


ROMAN  GIRLS  WITH  A  STYLUS  AND  WRITING  TABLET. 

The  Romans  had  a  citadel  on  the  Capitoline  Hill, 
and  Tatius  desired  to  win  it.  The  guardian  was 
named  Tarpeius,  and  he  had  a  daughter,  Tarpeia, 
who  was  so  much  attracted  by  the  golden  ornaments 
worn  by  the  Sabines,  that  she  promised  to  open  the 


24     HOW  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY. 

citadel  to  them  if  each  soldier  would  give  his  bracelet 
to  her.  This  was  promised,  and  as  each  entered  he 
threw  his  golden  ornament  upon  the  poor  maiden, 
until  she  fell  beneath  the  weight  and  died,  for  they 
wished  to  show  that  they  hated  treachery  though 
willing  to  profit  by  it.  Her  name  was  fixed  upon 
the  steep  rock  of  the  Capitoline  Hill  from  which 
traitors  were  in  after  years  thrown. 

We  now  have  the  Sabines  on  one  hill  and  the 
Romans  on  another,  with  a  swampy  plain  of  small 
extent  between  them,  where  the  forum  was  after- 
ward built.  The  Romans  wished  to  retake  the 
Capitoline  Hill  (which  was  also  called  the  Hill  of 
Saturn),  and  a  battle  was  fought  the  next  day  in  the 
valley.  It  is  said  that  two  men  began  the  fight, 
Mettus  Curtius,  representing  the  Sabines,  and  Hostus 
Hostilius,  the  Romans,  and  that  though  the  Roman 
was  killed,  Curtius  was  chased  into  the  swamp, 
where  his  horse  was  mired,  and  all  his  efforts  with 
whip  and  spur  to  get  him  out  proving  ineffectual,  he 
left  the  faithful  beast  and  saved  himself  with  dif- 
ficulty. The  swamp  was  ever  after  known  as  Lacus 
Curtius,  and  this  story  might  be  taken  as  the  true 
origin  of  its  name  (for  lacus  in  Latin  meant  a  marsh 
as  well  as  a  lake),  if  it  were  not  that  there  are  two 
other  accounts  of  the  reason  for  it.  One  story  is 
that  in  the  year  362  B.C. — that  is,  some  four  centuries 
after  the  battle  we  have  just  related,  the  earth  in  the 
forum  gave  way,  and  all  efforts  to  fill  it  proving  un- 
successful, the  oracles  were  appealed  to.  They  replied 
that  the  spot  could  not  be  made  firm  until  that  on 
which  Rome's  greatness  was  based  had  been  cast 


THE  STORIES  OF  CURTIUS.  2$ 

into  the  chasm,  but  that  then  the  state  would  pros- 
per. In  the  midst  of  the  doubting  that  followed 
this  announcement,  the  gallant  youth,  Curtius,  came 
forward,  declaring  that  the  city  had  no  greater  treas- 
ure than  a  brave  citizen  in  arms,  upon  which  he  im- 
mediately leaped  into  the  abyss  with  his  horse. 
Thereupon  the  earth  closed  over  the  sacrifice.  This 
is  the  story  that  Livy  prefers.  The  third  is  simply 
to  the  effect  that  while  one  Curtius  was  consul,  in  the 
year  445  B.C.,  the  earth  at  the  spot  was  struck  by 
lightning,  and  was  afterwards  ceremoniously  enclosed 
by  him  at  the  command  of  the  senate.  This  is  a 
good  example  of  the  sort  of  myth  that  the  learned 
call  cetiological — that  is,  myths  that  have  grown  up  to 
account  for  certain  facts  or  customs.  The  story 
of  the  carrying  off  of  the  Sabine  women  is  one  of 
this  kind,  for  it  seems  to  have  originated  in  a  desire 
to  account  for  certain  incidents  in  the  marriage  cere- 
monies of  the  Romans.  We  cannot  believe  either, 
though  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  some  event 
occurred  which  was  the  basis  of  the  tradition  told  in 
connection  with  the  history  of  different  periods.  We 
shall  find  that,  in  the  year  390,  all  the  records  of 
Roman  history  were  destroyed  by  certain  barbarians 
who  burned  the  city,  and  that  therefore  we  have 
tradition  only  upon  which  to  base  the  history  before 
that  date.  We  may  reasonably  believe,  however, 
that  at  some  time  the  marshy  ground  in  the  forum 
gave  way,  as  ground  often  does,  and  that  there  was 
difficulty  in  filling  up  the  chasm.  A  grand  oppor- 
tunity was  thus  offered  for  a  good  story-teller  to 
build  up  a  romance,  or  to  touch  up  the  early  history 


26     HOW  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY. 

with  an  interesting  tale  of  heroism.  The  temptation 
to  do  this  would  have  been  very  strong  to  an  imagi- 
native writer. 

The  Sabines  gained  the  first  advantage  in  the 
present  struggle,  and  it  seemed  as  though  fortune 
was  about  to  desert  the  Romans,  when  Romulus 
commended  their  cause  to  Jupiter  in  a  prayer  in 
which  he  vowed  to  erect  an  altar  to  him  as  Jupiter 
Stator — that  is,  "  Stayer,"  if  he  would  stay  the  flight 
of  the  Romans.  The  strife  was  then  begun  with  new 
vigor,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  din  and  carnage  the 
Sabine  women,  who  had  by  this  time  become  at- 
tached to  their  husbands,  rushed  between  the  fierce 
men  and  urged  them  not  to  make  them  widows  or 
fatherless,  which  was  the  sad  alternative  presented  to 
them.  "  Make  us  not  twice  captives !  "  they  ex- 
claimed. Their  appeal  resulted  in  peace,  and  the 
two  peoples  agreed  to  form  one  nation,  the  ruler  of 
which  should  be  alternately  a  Roman  and  a  Sabine, 
though  at  first  Romulus  and  Tatius  ruled  jointly. 
The  women  became  thus  dearer  to  the  whole  com- 
munity, and  the  feast  called  Matronalia  was  estab- 
lished in  their  honor,  when  wives  received  presents 
from  their  husbands  and  girls  from  their  lovers. 

Romulus  continued  to  live  on  the  Palatine  among 
the  Romans,  and  Tatius  on  the  Quirinal,  where  the 
Sabines  also  lived.  Each  people  adopted  some  of 
the  fashions  and  customs  of  the  other,  and  they  all 
met  for  the  transaction  of  business  in  the  Forum 
Romanum,  which  was  in  the  valley  of  the  Curtian 
Lake,  between  the  hills.  For  a  time  this  arrange- 
ment was  carried  on  in  peace,  and  the  united  nation 


WHERE  DID  ROMULUS  GO?  2J 

grew  in  numbers  and  power.  After  five  years,  how- 
ever, Tatius  was  slain  by  some  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Lavinium,  and  Romulus  was  left  sole  ruler  until  his 
death. 

Under  him  the  nation  grew  still  more  rapidly,  and 
others  were  made  subject  to  it,  all  of  which  good  for- 
tune was  attributed  to  his  prowess  and  skill.  Romulus 
became  after  a  while  somewhat  arrogant.  He  dressed 
in  scarlet,  received  his  people  lying  on  a  couch  of 
state,  and  surrounded  himself  with  a  body  of  young 
soldiers  called  Celeres,  from  the  swiftness  with  which 
they  executed  his  orders.  It  was  a  suspicious  fact 
that  all  at  once,  at  a  time  when  the  people  had  be- 
come dissatisfied  with  his  actions,  Romulus  disap- 
peared (717  B.C.).  Like  Evander,  he  went,  no  one 
knew  where,  though  one  of  his  friends  presented  him- 
self in  the  forum  and  assured  the  people  under  oath 
that  one  day,  as  he  was  going  along  the  road,  he  met 
Romulus  coming  toward  him,  dressed  in  shining 
armor,  and  looking  comelier  than  ever.  Proculus, 
for  that  was  the  friend's  name,  was  struck  with  awe 
and  filled  with  religious  dread,  but  asked  the  king 
why  he  had  left  the  people  to  bereavement,  endless 
sorrow,  and  wicked  surmises,  for  it  had  been  rumored 
that  the  senators  had  made  away  with  him.  Romu- 
lus replied  that  it  pleased  the  gods  that,  after  having 
built  a  city  destined  to  be  the  greatest  in  the  world 
for  empire  and  glory,  he  should  return  to  heaven, 
but  that  Proculus  might  tell  the  Romans  that  they 
would  attain  the  height  of  power  by  exercising  tem- 
perance and  fortitude,  in  which  effort  he  would  sus- 
tain them  and  remain  their  propitious  god  Quirinus, 


28     HOW  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY. 

An  altar  was  accordingly  erected  to  the  king's  honor, 
and  a  festival  called  the  Quirinalia  was  annually 
celebrated  on  the  seventeenth  of  February,  the  day 
on  which  he  is  said  to  have  been  received  into  the 
number  of  the  gods. 

Romulus  left  the  people  organized  into  two  great 
divisions,  Patricians  and  Clients:  the  former  being  the 
Populus  Romanus,  or  Roman  People,  and  possessing 
the  only  political  rights;  and  the.  others  being  en- 
tirely dependent  upon  them.  The  Patricians  were 
divided  into  three  tribes — the  Romans  (Ramncs),  the 
Etruscans  (Luccres),  and  the  Sabines  (Titles,  from 
Tatius).  Another  body,  not  yet  organized,  called 
Plebeians,  or  Plebs,  was  composed  of  inhabitants  of 
conquered  towns  and  refugees.  These,  though  not 
slaves,  had  no  political  rights.  Each  tribe  was 
divided  into  ten  Curiae,  and  the  thirty  Curiae  com- 
posed the  Comitia  Curiata,  which  was  the  sovereign 
assembly  of  the  Patricians,  authorized  to  choose  the 
king  and  to  decide  all  cases  affecting  the  lives  of  the 
citizens.  A  number  of  men  of  mature  age,  known 
as  the  Patres,  composed  the  Senate,  which  Romulus 
formed  to  assist  him  in  the  government.  This  body 
consisted  of  one  hundred  members  until  the  union 
with  the  Sabines,  when  it  was  doubled,  the  Etrus- 
cans not  being  represented  until  a  later  time.  The 
army  was  called  a  Legion,  and  was  composed  of  a 
contribution  of  a  thousand  foot-soldiers  and  a  hun- 
dred cavalry  (Equites,  Knights)  from  each  tribe. 

A  year  passed  after  the  death  of  Romulus  before 
another  king  was  chosen,  and  the  people  complained 
that  they  had  a  hundred  sovereigns  instead  of  one, 


NUMA    TEACHES  RELIGION.  29 

because  the  senate  governed,  and  that  not  always 
with  justness.  It  was  finally  agreed  that  the  Ro- 
mans should  choose  a  king,  but  that  he  should  be  a 
Sabine.  The  choice  fell  upon  Numa  Pompilius, 
a  man  learned  in  all  laws,  human  and  divine,  and  two 
ambassadors  were  accordingly  sent  to  him  at  his 
home  at  Cures,  to  offer  the  kingdom  to  him.  The 
ambassadors  were  politely  received  by  the  good  man, 
but  he  assured  them  that  he  did  not  wish  to  change 
his  condition  ;  that  every  alteration  in  life  is  danger- 
ous to  a  man  ;  that  madness  only  could  induce  one 
who  needed  nothing  to  quit  the  life  to  which  he  was 
accustomed  ;  that  he,  a  man  of  peace,  was  not  fitted 
to  direct  a  people  whose  progress  had  been  gained 
by  war ;  and  that  he  feared  that  he  might  prove  a 
laughing-stock  to  the  people  if  he  were  to  go  about 
teaching  them  the  worship  of  the  gods  and  the 
offices  of  peace  when  they  wanted  a  king  to  lead 
them  to  war.  The  more  he  jjfeclined,  the  more  the 
people  wished  him  to  accept^  and  at  last  his  father 
argued  with  him  that  a  martial  people  needed  one 
who  should  teach  them  moderation  and  religion  ; 
that  he  ought  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the  gods 
were  calling  him  to  a  large  sphere  of  usefulness. 
These  arguments  proved  sufficient,  and  Numa  ac- 
cepted the  crown.  After  making  the  appropriate 
offerings  to  the  gods,  he  set  out  for  Rome,  and  was 
met  by  the  populace  coming  forth  to  receive  him 
with  joyful  acclamations.  Sacrifices  were  offered  in 
the  temples,  and  with  impressive  ceremonies  the  new 
authority  was  joyfully  entrusted  to  him  (715  B.C.). 
As  Romulus  had  given  the  Romans  their  warlike 


3O     HOW  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY. 

customs,  so  now  Numa  gave  them  the  ceremonial 
laws  of  religion  ;  but  before  entering  upon  this  work, 
he  divided  among  the  people  the  public  lands  that 
Romulus  had  added  to  the  property  of  the  city  by 
his  conquests,  by  this  movement  showing  that  he  was 
possessed  of  worldly  as  well  as  of  heavenly  wisdom. 
He  next  instituted  the  worship  of  the  god  Terminus, 
who  seems  to  have  been  simply  Jupiter  in  the  ca- 
pacity of  guardian  of  boundaries.  Numa  ordered 
all  persons  to  mark  the  limits  of  their  lands  by  con- 
secrated stones,  and  at  these,  when  they  celebrated 
the  feast  of  Terminalia,  sacrifices  were  to  be  offered 
of  cakes,  meal,  and  fruits.  Moses  had  done  some- 
thing like  this  hundreds  of  years  before,  in  the  land 
of  Palestine,  when  he  wrote  in  his  laws :  "  Thou 
shalt  not  remove  thy  neighbor's  landmark,  which 
they  of  old  time  have  set,  in  thine  inheritance  which 
thou  shalt  inherit,  in  the  land  that  the  Lord  thy  God 
giveth  thee."  He  had  impressed  it  upon  the  people, 
repeating  in  a  solemn  religious  service  the  words : 
"  Cursed  be  he  that  removeth  his  neighbor's  land- 
mark," to  which  all  the  people  in  those  primitive 
times  solemnly  said  "  Amen  !  "  You  will  find  the 
same  sentiment  repeated  in  the  Proverbs  of  Solo- 
mon. When  Romulus  had  laid  out  the  pomoerium, 
he  made  the  outline  something  like  a  square,  and 
called  it  Roma  Quadrata,  that  is  "  Square  Rome," 
but  he  did  not  direct  the  landmarks  of  the  public 
domain  to  be  distinctly  indicated.  The  consecration 
of  the  boundaries  undoubtedly  made  the  people 
consider  themselves  more  secure  in  their  possessions, 
and  consequently  made  the  state  itself  more  stable. 


GUILDS  ESTABLISHED.  31 

In  order  to  make  the  people  feel  more  like  one 
body  and  think  less  of  the  fact  that  they  comprised 
persons  belonging  to  different  nations,  Numa  insti- 
tuted nine  guilds  among  which  the  workmen  were 
distributed.  These  were  the  pipers,  carpenters, 
goldsmiths,  tanners,  leather-workers,  dyers,  potters, 


A   ROMAN  ALTAR. 


smiths,  and  one  in  which  all  other  handicraftsmen 
were  united.  Thus  these  men  spoke  of  each  other 
as  members  of  this  or  that  guild,  instead  of  as 
Etruscans,  Romans,  and  Sabines. 

Human  sacrifices  were  declared  abolished  at  this 


32      HOW  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY. 

time ;  the  rites  of  prayer  were  established ;  the 
temple  of  Janus  was  founded  (which  was  closed  in 
time  of  peace  and  open  in  time  of  war)  ;  priests  were 
ordained  to  conduct  the  public  worship,  the  Pontifex 
Maximus  *  being  at  the  head  of  them,  and  the 
Flamens,  Vestal  Virgins,  and  Salii,  being  subordi- 
nate. Numa  pretended  that  he  met  by  night  a  nymph 
named  Egeria,  at  a  grotto  under  the  Ccelian  Hill, 
not  far  from  the  present  site  of  the  Baths  of  Cara- 
calla,  and  that  from  time  to  time  she  gave  him  direc- 
tions as  to  what  rites  would  be  acceptable  to  the 
gods.  Another  nymph,  whom  Numa  commended  to 
the  special  veneration  of  the  Romans,  was  named 
Tacita,  or  the  silent.  This  was  appropriate  for  one 
of  such  quiet  and  unobtrusive  manners  as  this  good 
king  possessed. 

Romulus  is  said  to  have  made  the  year  consist  of 
but  ten  months,  the  first  being  March,  named  from 
Mars,  the  god  whom  he  delighted  to  honor ;  but 
Numa  saw  that  his  division  was  faulty,  and  so  he 
added  two  months,  making  the  first  one  January, 
from  Janus,  the  god  who  loved  civil  and  social  unity, 
whose  temple  he  had  built ;  and  the  second  Feb- 
ruary, or  the  month  of  purification,  from  the  Latin 
word  fcbrua.  If  he  had  put  in  his  extra  months  at 

*  Pontifex  means  bridge-builder  (pans,  a  bridge,  facere,  to  make), 
and  the  title  is  said  to  have  been  given  to  these  magistrates  because 
they  built  the  wooden  bridge  over  the  Tiber,  and  kept  it  in  repair,  so 
that  sacrifices  might  be  made  on  bolh  sides  of  the  river.  The  build- 
ing of  this  bridge  is,  however,  ascribed  to  Ancus  Martius  at  a  later 
dale,  and  so  some  think  the  name  was  originally  pompifex  (pompa,  a 
solemn  procession),  and  meant  that  the  officers  had  charge  of  such 
celebrations. 


A    WARRtOR-KING.  33 

some  other  part  of  the  year,  he  might  have  allowed 
it  still  to  begin  in  the  spring,  as  it  naturally  does,  and 
we  should  not  be  obliged  to  explain  to  every  genera- 
tion why  the  ninth,  tenth,  eleventh,  and  twelfth 
months  are  still  called  the  seventh,  eighth,  ninth,  and 
tenth.* 

The  poets  said  in  the  peaceful  days  of  Numa, 
Rust  eats  the  pointed  spear  and  double-edged  sword. 
No  more  is  heard  the  trumpet's  brazen  roar, 
Sweet  sleep  is  banished  from  our  eyes  no  more, 

and  that  over  the  iron  shields  the  spiders  hung  their 
threads,  for  it  was  a  sort  of  golden  age,  when  there 
was  neither  plot,  nor  envy,  nor  sedition  in  the  state, 
for  the  love  of  virtue  and  the  serenity  of  spirit  of 
the  king  flowed  down  upon  all  the  happy  subjects. 
In  due  time,  after  a  long  reign  and  a  peaceful  and 
useful  life,  Numa  died,  not  by  disease  or  war,  but  by 
the  natural  decline  of  his  faculties.  The  people 
mourned  for  him  heartily  and  honored  him  with  a 
costly  burial. 

After  the  death  of  this  king  an  interregnum  fol- 
lowed, during  which  the  senate  ruled  again,  but  it 
was  not  long  before  the  Sabines  chose  as  king  a 
Roman,  Tullus  Hostilius,  grandson  of  that  Hostus 
Hostilius  who  had  won  distinction  in  the  war  with 
the  Sabines.  The  new  sovereign  thought  that  the 
nation  was  losing  its  noble  prestige  through  the 
quietness  with  which  it  lived  among  its  neighbors, 
and  therefore  he  embraced  every  opportunity  to  stir 

*  We  shall  find  that  in  the  course  of  time  this  arrangement  of  the 
year  proved  very  faulty  in  its  turn,  and  that  Julius  Caesar  made 
another  effort  to  reform  it.  (See  page  247.) 


34      HOW  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY. 

up  war  with  the  surrounding  peoples,  and  success 
followed  his  campaigns.  The  peasants  between  Rome 
and  Alba*  afforded  him  the  first  pretext,  by  plun- 
dering each  other's  lands.  The  Albans  were  ready 
to  settle  the  difficulty  in  a  peaceful  manner,  but  Tul- 
lus,  determined  upon  aggrandizement,  refused  all 
overtures.  It  was  much  like  a  civil  war,  for  both 
nations  were  of  Trojan  origin,  according  to  the  tra- 
ditions. The  Albans  pitched  their  tents  within  five 
miles  of  Rome,  and  built  a  trench  about  the  city. 
The  armies  were  drawn  up  ready  for  battle,  when  the 
Alban  leader  came  out  and  made  a  speech,  in  which 
he  said  that  as  both  Romans  and  Sabines  were  sur- 
rounded by  strange  nations  who  would  like  to  see 
them  weakened,  as  they  would  undoubtedly  be  by 
the  war,  he  proposed  that  the  question  which  should 
rule  the  other,  ought  to  be  decided  in  some  less  de- 
structive way. 

It  happened  that  there  were  in  the  army  of  the 
Romans  three  brothers  known  as  the  Horatii,  of  the 
same  age  as  three  others  in  the  Alban  army  called 
the  Curiatii,  and  it  was  agreed  that  these  six  should 
fight  in  the  place  of  the  two  armies.  At  the  first  clash 
of  arms  two  of  the  Romans  fell  lifeless,  though 
every  one  of  the  Curiatii  was  wounded.  This 
caused  the  Sabines  to  exult,  especially  as  they  saw 
the  remaining  Roman  apparently  running  away. 
The  flight  of  Horatius  was,  however,  merely 
feigned,  in  order  to  separate  the  opposing  brothers, 
whom  he  met  as  they  followed  him,  and  killed  in 

*Alba  became  the  chief  of  a  league  of  thirty  Latin  cities,  lying  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  great  basin  through  which  the  Tiber  finds  its 
way  to  the  sea,  between  Etruria  and  Campania. 


36     HOW  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY. 

succession.  As  he  struck  his  sword  into  the  last  of 
the  Albans,  he  exclaimed :  "  Two  have  I  offered  to 
the  shades  of  my  brothers ;  the  third  will  I  offer  to  the 
cause  of  this  war,  that  the  Roman  may  rule  over 
the  Alban  !  "  A  triumph  *  followed  ;  but  it  appears 
that  a  sister  of  Horatius,  named  Horatia,  \  was  to 
have  married  one  of  the  Curiatii,  and  when  she  met 
her  victorious  brother  bearing  as  his  plunder  the 
military  robe  of  her  lover  that  she  had  wrought  with 
her  own  hands,  she  tore  her  hair  and  uttered  bitter 
exclamations.  Horatius  in  his  anger  and  impatience 
thrust  her  through  with  his  sword,  saying :  "  So 
perish  every  Roman  woman  who  shall  mourn  an 
enemy?"  For  this  act,  the  victorious  young  man 
was  condemned  to  death,  but  he  appealed  to  the 
people,  and  they  mitigated  his  sentence  in  conse- 
quence of  his  services  to  the  state. 

Another  war  followed,  with  the  Etruscans  this 
time,  and  the  Albans  not  behaving  like  true  allies, 
their  city  was  demolished  and  its  inhabitants  removed 
to  Rome,  where  they  were  assigned  to  the  Ccelian 
Hill.  Some  of  the  more  noble  among  them  were 
enrolled  among  the  Patricians,  and  the  others  were 
added  to  the  Plebs,  who  then  became  for  the  first 
time  an  organic  part  of  the  social  body,  though  not 

*  A  "  triumph"  was  a  solemn  rejoicing  after  a  victory,  and  included 
a.pompa,  or  procession  of  the  general  and  soldiers  on  foot  with  their 
plunder.  Triumphs  seem  to  have  been  celebrated  in  some  style  in  the 
earliest  days  of  Rome.  In  later  times  they  increased  very  much  in 
splendor  and  costliness. 

f  The  Romans  seem  in  one  respect  to  have  had  little  ingenuity  in 
the  matter  of  names,  though  generally  they  had  too  many  of  them, 
and  formed  that  of  a  woman  from  the  name  of  a  man  by  simply  chang- 
ing the  end  of  it  from  the  masculine  form  to  the  feminine. 


A   RELIGIOUS  KING.  37 

belonging  to  the  Populus  Romanus  (or  Roman  Peo- 
ple), so  called.  On  another  occasion  Tullus  made 
war  upon  the  Sabines  and  conquered  them,  but 
finally  he  offended  the  gods,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  he  bethought  himself  of  the  good  Numa  and 
began  to  follow  his  example,  Jupiter  smote  him  with 
a  thunder-bolt  and  destroyed  him  and  his  house. 

Again  an  interregnum  followed,  and  again  a  king 
was  chosen,  this  time  Ancus  Marcius,  a  Sabine,  grand- 
son of  the  good  Numa,  a  man  who  strove  to  emulate 
the  virtues  of  his  ancestor.  It  is  to  be  noticed  that 
the  four  kings  of  Rome  thus  far  are  of  two  classes, 
the  warlike  and  peaceful  alternating  in  the  legends. 
The  neighbors  expected  that  Ancus  would  not  be  a 
forceful  king,  and  some  of  them  determined  to  take 
advantage  of  his  supposed  weakness.  He  set  himself 
to  repair  the  neglected  religion,  putting  up  tables  in 
the  forum  on  which  were  written  the  ceremonial  law, 
so  that  all  might  know  its  demands,  and  seeking  to 
lead  the  people  to  worship  the  gods  in  the  right 
spirit.  Ancus  seems  to  have  united  with  his  re- 
ligious character,  however,  a  proper  regard  for  the 
rights  of  the  nation,  and  when  the  Latins  who  lived 
on  the  river  Anio,  made  incursions  into  his  domain, 
thinking  that  he  would  not  notice  it,  in  the  ardor  of  his 
services  at  the  temples  and  altars,  he  entered  upon  a 
vigorous  and  successful  campaign,  conquering  several 
cities  and  removing  their  inhabitants,  giving  them 
homes  on  the  Aventine  Hill,  thus  increasing  the 
lands  that  could  be  divided  among  the  Romans  and 
adding  to  the  number  of  the  Plebeians.  Ancus 
founded  a  colony  at  Ostia  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber, 


I 

38     HOW  THE  SHEPHERDS  BEGAN  THE  CITY. 

and  built  a  fortress  on  the  Janiculum  Hill,  across  the 
river,  connecting  it  with  the  other  regions  by  means 
of  the  first  Roman  bridge,  called  the  Pans  Sublicius, 
or  in  simple  English,  the  wooden  bridge.  This  is 
the  one  that  the  Romans  wanted  to  cut  down  at  a 
later  period,  as  we  shall  see,  and  had  great  difficulty 
in  destroying.  Another  relic  of  Ancus  is  seen  in 
a  chamber  of  the  damp  Mamertine  prison  under  the 
Capitoline  Hill,  the  first  prison  in  the  city,  rendered 
necessary  by  the  increase  of  crime.  After  a  reign  of 
twenty-four  years,  Ancus  Martius  died,  and  a  new 
dynasty,  of  Etruscan  origin,  began  to  control  the 
fortunes  of  the  now  rapidly  growing  nation. 


III. 

HOW   CORINTH   GAVE   ROME   A  NEW   DYNASTY. 

THE  city  of  Corinth,  in  Greece,  was  one  of  the 
most  wealthy  and  enterprising  on  the  Mediterranean 
in  its  day,  and  at  about  the  time  that  Rome  is  said 
to  have  been  founded,  it  entered  upon  a  new  period 
of  commercial  activity  and  foreign  colonization.  So 
many  Greeks  went  to  live  on  the  islands  around 
Italy,  and  on  the  shores  of  Italy  itself,  indeed,  that 
that  region  was  known  as  Magna  Grcecia,  or  Great 
Greece,  just  as  in  our  day  we  speak  of  Great  Britain, 
when  we  wish  to  include  not  England  only,  but  also 
the  whole  circle  of  lands  under  British  rule.  At  this 
time  of  commercial  activity  there  came  into  power 
in  Corinth  a  family  noted  for  its  wealth  and  force 
no  less  than  for  the  luxury  in  which  it  lived,  and  the 
oppression,  too,  with  which  it  ruled  the  people.  One 
of  the  daughters  of  the  sovereign  married  out  of  the 
family,  because  she  was  so  ill-favored  that  no  one  in 
her  circle  was  willing  to  have  her  as  wife. 

In  due  time  the  princess  became  the  mother  of  a 
boy,  of  whom  the  oracle  at  Delphi  prophesied  that 
he  should  be  a  formidable  opponent  of  the  ruling 
dynasty.  Whenever  the  oracle  made  such  a  proph- 
ecy about  a  child,  it  was  customary  for  the  ruler  to 


4O  A  NEW  DYNASTY. 

try  to  make  away  with  it,  and  that  the  ruler  of  Coi 
inth  did  in  this  case.  All  efforts  were  unsuccessful 
however,  because  his  homely  mother  hid  him  in 
chest  when  the  spies  came  to  the  house.  Now  th 
Greek  word  for  chest  is  kupsele,  and  therefore  thi 
boy  was  called  Cypselus.  He  grew  up  to  be  a  fin 
young  man,  and  entered  political  life  as  champion  c 
the  people — the  demos,  as  the  Greeks  would  say,  an< 
was  therefore  a  democratic  politician.* 

He  opposed  the  aristocratic  rulers,  and  at  last  siu 
ceeded  in  overturning  their  government  and  gettin 
into  the  position  of  supreme  ruler  himself.  He  rule 
thirty  years  in  peace,  and  was  so  much  loved  by  th 
Corinthians  that  he  went  about  among  them  in  saf< 
ty  without  any  body-guard. 

When  Cypselus  came  into  power  the  citizens  <. 
Corinth  who  belonged  to  the  aristocratic  family  wrr 
obliged  to  go  elsewhere,  somewhat  as  those  prince 
called  Emigres  (emigrants)  left  France  during  the  Re^ 
olution,  in  1789.  One  of  them,  whose  name  was  Den 
aratus,  a  wealthy  and  intelligent  merchant,  conclude 
to  go  westward,  to  Magna  Graecia,  into  the  part  of  th 
world  from  which  his  ships  had  brought  him  his  rei 
enues.  Accordingly,  accompanied  by  his  family, 
great  retinue,  and  some  artists  and  sculptors,  h 
sailed  away  for  Italy  and  settled  at  the  Etrusca 
town  of  Tarquinii.  He  did  not  go  more  than  five  c 
six  hundred  miles  from  home,  but  his  enterprise  We 

*  A  politician  is  a  person  versed  in  the  science  of  government,  fro 
the  Greek  words  polls,  a  c\\.y,.polites,  a  citizen.     Though  a  very  hoi 
orable  title,  it  has  been  debased  in  familiar  usage  until  it  has  come 
mean  in  turn  a  partisan,  a  dabbler  in  public  affairs,  and  even  an  ai 
ful  trickster. 


TARQU1NWS  GOES  TO  ROME.  4! 

as  marked  as  that  of  our  fathers  was  considered 
when,  in  the  last  generation,  they  removed  from 
New  York  to  Chicago,  though  the  distance  was  not 
nearly  so  great.  No  wonder  Demaratus  thought 
that  it  would  be  a  comfort  to  have  with  him  some  of 
the  artists  and  sculptors  whose  genius  had  made  his 
Corinthian  home  beautiful. 

As  he  had  come  to  Tarquinii  to  spend  all  his  days, 
Demaratus  married  a  lady  of  the  place,  and  she 
became  the  mother  of  a  son,  Lucomo.  When  this 
young  man  grew  up,  he  found  that,  though  a  native 
of  the  city,  he  was  looked  upon  as  a  foreigner  on  his 
father's  account,  and  that,  though  he  belonged  to  a 
family  of 'the  highest  rank  and  wealth  through  his 
mother's  connections,  he  was  excluded  from  political 
power  and  influence.  He  had  inherited  the  love  of 
authority  that  had  possessed  his  father's  ancestors, 
and  as  his  father  had  migrated  from  home  to  gain 
peace,  he  felt  no  reluctance  in  leaving  Tarquinii  in 
the  hope  of  gaining  the  power  he  thought  his 
wealth  and  pedigree  entitled  him  to.  There  was  no 
more  attractive  field  for  his  ambition  than  Rome 
presented,  and  Lircomo  probably  knew  that  that  city 
had  been  from  its  very  foundation  an  asylum  for 
strangers.  Thither,  therefore,  he  decided  to  take 
himself. 

We  can  imagine  the  removal,  as  the  long  proces- 
sion of  chariots  and  footmen  slowly  passed  over  the 
fifty  miles  that  separated  Tarquinii  from  Rome. 
Just  above  Civita  Vecchia  you  may  see  on  your 
modern  map  of  Italy  a  town  called  Corneto,  and  a 
mile  from  that,  perhaps,  another  named  Turchina, 


42  A  NEW  DYNASTY. 

which  is  all  that  remains  of  the  old  town  in  whict 
Lucomo  lived.  Even  now  relics  of  the  Tarquinian; 
are  found  there,  and  there  are  many  in  the  museum: 
of  Europe  that  illustrate  the  ancient  civilization  o 
the  Etruscans,  which  was  greater  at  this  time  thar 
that  of  the  Romans.  On  his  journey  Lucomo  was 
himself  seated  in  a  chariot  with  his  wife  Tanaquil 
whom  he  seems  to  have  honored  very  highly,  anc 
the  long  train  of  followers  stretched  behind  them 
It  represented  all  that  great  wealth  directed  by  con 
siderable  cultivation  could  purchase,  and  must  hav< 
formed  an  imposing  sight.  Rome  was  approachec 
from  the  south  side  of  the  Tiber,  by  the  way  of  th< 
Janiculum  Hill  and  over  the  wooden  bridge. 

When  the  emigrants  reached  the  Janiculum,  anc 
saw  the  hills  and  the  modest  temples  of  Rome  be 
fore  them,  an  eagle,  symbol  of  royalty,  flew  down 
and  gently  stooping,  took  off  Lucomo's  cap.  Then 
after  having  flown  around  the  chariot  with  louc 
screams,  it  replaced  it,  and  was  soon  lost  again  ir 
the  blue  heavens.  It  was  as  though  it  had  beer 
sent  by  the  gods  to  encourage  the  strangers  to  ex 
pect  good  fortune  in  their  new  home.  Tanaquil 
who  was  well  versed  in  the  augury  of  her  country 
men,  embraced  her  husband ;  told  him  from  what 
divinity  the  eagle  had  come,  and  from  what  aus- 
picious quarter  of  the  heavens;  and  said  that  it  had 
performed  its  message  about  the  highest  part  of  the 
body,  which  was  in  itself  prophetic  of  good. 

Considerable  impression  must  have  been  made 
upon  the  subjects  of  Ancus  Martius  as  the  distin- 
guished stranger  and  his  long  suite  entered  the  city 


ROME'S  GRANDE UR  BEGINS.  43 

over  the  bridge,  and  when  Lucomo  bought  a  fine 
house,  and  showed  himself  affable  and  courteous,  he 
was  received  with  a  cordial  welcome,  and  soon  ad- 
mitted to  the  rights  of  a  Roman  citizen.  Seldom 
had  the  town  received  so  acceptable  an  addition  to 
its  population.  Lucomo  soon  changed  his  name  to 
Lucius  Tarquinius,  and  to  this,  in  after  years,  when 
there  were  two  of  the  same  family  name,  the  word 
Priscus,  or  Elder,  was  added.  Tarquinius,  as  we 
may  now  call  him,  flattered  the  Romans  by  invita- 
tions to  his  hospitable  mansion,  where  his  entertain- 
ments added  greatly  to  his  popularity,  and  in  time 
Ancus  himself  heard  of  his  acts  of  kindness,  and' 
added  his  name  to  the  list  of  the  new  citizen's  inti- 
mate friends.  Tarquinius  was  admitted  by  the  king  to 
private  as  well  as  public  deliberations  about  matters 
of  foreign  and  domestic  importance,  and  doubtless 
his  knowledge  of  other  countries  stood  him  in  good 
stead  on  these  occasions. 

The  stranger  had  taken  the  king  and  people  by 
storm,  and  when  Ancus  died,  he  left  his  sons  to  the 
guardianship  of  Tarquinius,  and  the  Populus  Ro- 
manus  chose  him  to  be  their  king.  Thus  Rome 
came  to  have  at  the  head  of  its  affairs  a  man  not  a 
Roman  nor  a  Sabine,  but  a  citizen  of  Greek  extrac- 
tion, who  was  familiar  with  a  much  higher  state  of 
civilization  than  was  known  on  the  banks  of  the 
Tiber.  The  result  is  seen  in  the  great  strides  in 
advance  that  the  city  took  during  his  reign.  The 
architectural  grandeur  of  Rome  dates  its  beginning 
from  this  time.  Tarquinius  laid  out  vast  drains  to 
draw  away  the  water  that  stood  in  the  Lacus  Cur- 


44  A   NEW  DYNASTY. 

tius,  between  the  Capitoline  and  the  Palatine  hills, 
and  these  remain  to  this  day,  as  any  one  who  has 
visited  Rome  remembers — the  mouth  of  the  Cloaca 
Maxima  (the  great  sewer)  being  one  of  the  remarka- 
ble sights  there.  The  king  also  drained  other  parts 
of  the  city ;  vowed  to  build,  and  perhaps  began,  the 
temple  on  the  Capitoline ;  built  a  wall  about  the 
city,  and  erected  the  permanent  buildings  on  the 
great  forum.  These  works  involved  vast  labor  and 
expense,  and  must  have  been  very  burdensome  to 
the  people.  Like  other  oppressive  monarchs,  Tar- 
quinius  planned  games  and  festivities  to  amuse 
them.  He  enlarged  the  Circus  Maximus,  and  im- 
ported boxers  and  horses  from  his  native  country 
to  perform  at  games  there,  which  were  afterwards 
celebrated  annually.  Besides  these  victories  of 
peace,  this  king  conquered  the  people  about  him, 
and  greatly  added  to  the  number  of  his  subjects. 
He  for  the  first  time  instituted  the  formal  "  tri- 
umph," as  it  was  afterwards  celebrated,  riding  into 
the  city  after  a  victory  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  four 
white  horses,  and  wearing  a  robe  bespangled  with 
gold.  He  brought  in  also  the  augural  science  of 
his  country,  which  had  been  only  partially  known 
before. 

While  Tarquinius  was  thus  adding  to  the  great- 
ness of  Rome,  there  appeared  in  the  palace  one  of 
those  marvels  that  the  early  historians  delighted  to 
relate,  such  as,  indeed,  mankind  in  all  ages  has  been 
pleased  with.  A  boy  was  asleep  in  the  portico  when 
a  flame  was  seen  encircling  his  little  head,  and  the 
attendants  were  about  to  throw  water  upon  it,  when 


MOUTH    OF  CLOACA   MAXIMA,   AT  THE   TIBER,   AND   THE    SO-CALLED 
TEMPLE  OF  VESTA. 


46  A  NEW  DYNASTY. 

the  queen  interfered,  forbidding  the  boy  to  be  dis- 
turbed. She  then  brought  the  matter  to  the  notice 
of  her  husband,  saying:  "  Do  you  see  this  boy  whom 
we  are  so  meanly  bringing  up  ?  He  is  destined  to 
be  a  light  in  our  adversity,  and  a  help  in  our  dis- 
tress. Let  us  care  for  him,  for  he  will  become  a 
great  ornament  to  us  and  to  the  state."  Tarquinius 
knew  well  the  importance  of  his  wife's  advice,  and 
educated  the  boy,  whose  name  was  Servius  Tullius, 
in  a  way  befitting  a  royal  prince.  In  the  course  of 
time  he  married  the  king's  daughter,  and  found  him- 
self in  favor  with  the  people  as  well  as  with  his  royal 
father-in-law. 

For  all  the  forty  years  of  the  prosperous  reign  of 
Tarquinius,  the  traditions  would  have  us  believe,  the 
two  sons  of  Ancus  had  been  nursing  their  wrath  and 
inwardly  boiling  over  with  indignation  because  they 
had  been  deprived  of  the  kingship,  and  now,  as  they 
saw  the  popularity  of  young  Servius,  they  determined 
to  wrench  the  crown  from  him  after  destroying  the 
king.  They  therefore  sent  two  shepherds  into  his 
presence,  who  pretended  to  wish  advice  about  a 
matter  in  dispute.  While  one  engaged  Tarquin's 
attention,  the  other  struck  him  a  fatal  blow  with  his 
axe.  The  queen  was,  however,  quick-witted  enough 
to  keep  them  from  enjoying  the  fruit  of  their  perfidy, 
for  she  assured  the  people  from  a  window  that  the 
king  was  not  killed  but  only  stunned,  and  that  for 
the  present  he  desired  them  to  obey  the  directions 
of  Servius  Tullius.  She  then  called  upon  the  young 
man  to  let  the  celestial  flame  with  which  the  gods 
had  surrounded  his  head  in  his  youth  arouse  him  to 


SERVIUS  TAKES  POSSESSION.  47 

action.  "  The  kingdom  is  yours  !  "  she  exclaimed  ; 
"  if  you  have  no  plans  of  your  own,  then  follow 
mine !  "  For  several  days  the  king's  death  was  con- 
cealed, and  Servius  took  his  place  on  the  throne,  de- 
ciding some  cases,  and  in  regard  to  others  pretending 
that  he  would  consult  Tarquinius  (B.C.  578).  Thus 
he  made  the  senate  and  the  people  accustomed  to 
seeing  him  at  the  head  of  affairs,  and  when  the 
actual  fact  was  allowed  to  transpire,  Servius  took 
possession  of  the  kingdom  with  the  consent  of  the 
senate,  but  without  that  of  the  people,  which  he  did 
not  ask.  This  was  the  first  king  who  ascended  the 
throne  without  the  suffrages  of  the  Populus 
Romanus.  The  sons  of  Ancus  went  into  banishment, 
and  the  royal  power,  which  had  passed  from  the 
Romans  to  the  Etruscans,  now  fell  into  the  hands  of 
a  man  of  unknown  citizenship,  though  he  has  been 
described  as  a  native  of  Corniculum,  one  of  the 
mountain  towns  to  the  northeast  of  Rome,  which  is 
never  heard  of  excepting  in  connection  with  this 
reign. 


IV. 


THE   RISE   OF  THE   COMMONS. 

WHATEVER  may  have  been  the  origin  of  the 
new  king,  he  was  evidently  not  of  the  ruling  class, 
the  Populus  Romanus,  and  for  this  reason  his  sym- 
pathies were  naturally  with  the  Plebeians,  or,  as  they 
would  now  be  called,  the  Commons.  The  long  reign 
of  Scrvius  was  marked  by^the  victories  of  peace, 
though  he  was  involved  in  wars  with  the  surrounding 
nations,  in  which  he  was  successful.  These  conquests 
seemed  to  fix  the  king  more  firmly  upon  the  throne, 
but  they  did  not  render  him  much  less  desirous  of 
obtaining  the  good-will  of  his  subjects,  and  they 
never  seemed  to  tempt  him  to  exercise  his  power  in 
a  tyrannical  manner.  He  thought  that  by  marrying 
his  two  daughters  to  two  sons  of  Tarquin,  he  might 
make  his  position  on  the  throne  more  secure,  and  he 
accomplished  this  intention,  but  it  failed  to  benefit 
him  as  he  had  expected. 

Besides  adding  largely  to  the  national  territory, 
Servius  brought  the  thirty  cities  of  Latium  into  a 
great  league  with  Rome,  and  built  a  temple  on  the 
Aventine  consecrated  to  Diana  (then  in  high  renown 
at  Ephesus),  at  which  the  Romans,  Latins,  and 
Sabines  should  worship  together  in  token  of  their 


THE   SEVEN  HILLS.  49 

unity  as  one  civil  brotherhood,  though  it  was  under- 
stood that  the  Romans  were  chief  in  rank.  On  a 
brazen  pillar  in  this  edifice  the  terms  of  the  treaty  on 
which  the  league  was  based  were  written,  and  there 
they  remained  for  centuries.  The  additions  to 
Roman  territory  gave  Servius  an  opportunity  of 
strengthening  his  hold  upon  the  commons,  for  he 
took  advantage  of  it  to  cause  a  census  to  be  taken 
under  the  direction  of  two  Censors,  on  the  basis  of 
which  he  made  new  divisions  of  the  people,  and  new 
laws  by  which  the  plebeians  came  into  greater 
prominence  than  they  had  enjoyed  before.  The 
census  showed  that  the  city  and  suburbs  contained 
eighty-three  thousand  inhabitants. 

The  increase  of  population  led  to  the  extension  of 
the  pomoerium,  and  Selvius  completed  the  city  by 
including  within  a  wall  of  stone  all  of  the  celebrated 
seven  hills  * — the  Palatine,  Aventine,  Capitoline, 
Ccelian,  Quirinal,  Viminal,  and  Esquilian,  —  for, 
though  new  suburbs  grew  up  beyond  this  wall,  the 
legal  limits  of  the  city  were  not  changed  until  the 
times  of  the  empire. 

The  inhabitants  within  the  walls  were  divided  into 
four  "  regions,"  or  districts — the  Palatine,  the  Col- 
line,  the  Esquiline,  and  the  Suburran.  The  sub- 
jected districts  outside,  which  were  inhabited  by 
plebeians,  were  divided  into  twenty-six  other  regions, 
thus  forming  thirty  tribes  containing  both  plebeians 

*  The  "  seven  hills  "  were  not  always  the  same.  In  earlier  times 
they  had  been  :  Palatinus,  Cermalus,  Velia,  Fagutal,  Oppius,  Cispius, 
and  Ccelius.  Oppius  and  Cispius,  were  names  of  summits  of  the 
Esquiline  ;  Velia  was  a  spur  of  the  Palatine  ;  Cermalus  and  Fagutal, 
according  to  Niebuhr,  were  not  hills  at  all, 


5O  THE  RISE   OF   THE  COMMONS. 

and  patricians.  The  census  gave  Servius  a  list  of  all 
the  citizens  and  their  property,  and  upon  the  basis 
of  this  information  he  separated  the  entire  popula- 
tion into  six  classes,  comprising  one  hundred  and 
ninety-three  subdivisions  or  "  centuries,"  thus  intro- 
ducing a  new  principle,  and  placing  wealth  at  the 
bottom  of  social  distinctions,  instead  of  birth.  This 
naturally  pleased  the  plebeians,  but  was  not  approved 
by  the  citizens  of  high  pedigree,  who  thus  lost  some  of 
their  prestige.  The  newly  formed  centuries  together 
constituted  the  Comitia  Centuriata  (gathering  of  the 
centuries),  or  National  Assembly,  which  met  for 
business  on  the  Campus  Martius,  somewhat  after 
the  manner  of  a  New  England  "  Town  Meeting." 
In  these  conclaves  they  elected  certain  magistrates, 
gave  sanction  to  legislative  acts,  and  decided  upon 
war  or  peace.  This  Comitia  formed  the  highest 
court  of  appeal  known  to  Roman  law. 

Besides  this  general  assembly  of  the  entire  Populus 
Romanus,  Servius  established  a  Comitia  in  each 
tribe,  authorized  to  exercise  jurisdiction  in  local 
affairs. 

The  first  of  the  six  general  classes  thus  established 
comprised  the  Horsemen,  Equitcs,  Knights,  or 
Cavalry,  consisting  of  six  patrician  centuries  of 
Equites  established  by  Romulus,  and  twelve  new 
ones  formed  from  the  principal  plebeian  families. 
Next  in  rank  to  them  were  eighty  centuries  com- 
posed of  persons  owning  property  (not  deducting 
debts)  to  the  amount  of  one  hundred  thousand  ases 
(as,  copper,  brass,  bronze),  and  two  centuries  of 
persons  not  possessed  pf  wealth,  but  simply  Fa-brAm, 


THE  DIFFERENT  CLASSES.  5 1 

or  workmen  who  manufactured  things  out  of  hard 
material,  so  important  to  the  state  were  such  con- 
sidered at  the  time.  One  would  not  think  it  very 
difficult  to  get  admission  to  this  high  class,  when  it  is 
remembered  that  an  as  (originally  a  pound  of  copper 
in  weight)*  was  worth  but  about  a  cent  and  a 
half,  and  that  a  hundred  thousand  such  coins  would 
amount  to  only  about  fifteen  hundred  dollars; 
though,  of  course,  we  should  have  to  make  allowance 
for  the  price  of  commodities  if  we  wished  to  arrive 
at  the  exact  value  in  the  money  of  our  time.  The 
second,  third,  and  fourth  centuries  were  arranged  on 
a  descending  grade  of  property  qualification,  and  the 
fifth  comprised  those  persons  whose  property  was 
not  worth  less  than  twelve  thousand  five  hundred 
ases,  or  about  two  hundred  dollars.  The  sixth  class 
included  all  whose  possessions  did  not  amount  to 
even  so  little  as  this.  These  were  called  Proletarii 
or  Capite  Censorum  ;  caput,  the  Latin  for  head,  being 
used  in  reference  to  these  unimportant  citizens  for 
"  person,"  as  farmers  use  it  nowadays  when  they 
enumerate  animals  as  so  many  "  head." 

Though  the  new  arrangement  of  Servius  Tullius 
gave  the  plebeians  power,  it  did  not  give  them  so 
much  as  might  be  supposed,  because  it  was  contrived 
that  the  richest  class  should  have  the  greatest  number 
of  votes,  and  they  with  the  Equites  had  so  many 
that  they  were  able  to  carry  any  measure  upon  which 
they  agreed.  The  older  men,  too,  had  an  advantage, 

*  The  English  word  ace  gets  its  meaning,  "  one,"  from  the  fact 
that  in  Latin  as  signified  the  unit  either  of  weight  or  measure.  Two 
and  a  half  ases  were  equal  to  a  sestertius,  and  ten  ases  (or  four  sester- 
ces) equalled  one  denarius,  worth  about  sixteen  cents. 


52  THE  RISE  OF   THE   COMMONS. 

for  every  class  was  divided  into  Seniors  and  Juniors, 
each  of  which  had  an  equal  number  of  votes,  though 
it  is  apparent  that  the  seniors  must  have  been  always 
in  the  minority.  Servius  did  not  dare  to  abolish  the 
old  Comitia  Curiata,  and  he  felt  obliged  to  enact 
that  the  votes  of  the  new  Comitia  should  be  valid 
only  after  having  received  the  sanction  of  the  more 
ancient  body.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  there  were 
three  assemblies,  with  sovereignty  well  defined. 

The  armor  of  the  different  classes  was  also  ac- 
curately ordered  by  the  law.  The  first  class  was 
authorized  to  wear,  for  the  defence  of  the  body, 
brazen  helmets,  shields,  and  coats  of  mail,  and  to 
bear  spears  and  swords,  excepting  the  mechanics, 
who  were  to  carry  the  necessary  military  engines 
and  to  serve  without  arms.  The  members  of  the 
second  class,  excepting  that  they  had  bucklers 
instead  of  shields  and  wore  no  coats  of  mail,  were 
permitted  to  bear  the  same  armor,  and  to  carry 
the  sword  and  spear.  The  third  class  had  the  same 
armor  as  the  second,  excepting  that  they  could  not 
wear  greaves  for  the  protection  of  their  legs.  The 
fourth  had  no  arms  excepting  a  spear  and  a  long 
javelin.  The  fifth  merely  carried  slings  and  stones 
for  use  in  them.  To  this  class  belonged  the  trum- 
peters and  horn-blowers. 

These  reforms  were  very  important,  and  very  rea- 
sonable, too,  but  though  they  gained  for  the  king 
many  friends,  it  was  rather  among  the  plebeians 
than  among  the  more  wealthy  patricians,  and  frorji 
time  to  time  hints  were  thrown  out  that  the  consent 
of  the  people  had  not  been  asked  when  Servius  took 


54  THE  RISE  OF  THE  COMMONS. 

his  seat  upon  the  throne,  and  that  without  it  his 
right  to  the  power  he  wielded  was  not  complete. 
There  was  a  very  solemn  and  striking  ceremony  on 
the  Campus  Martius  after  the  census  had  been  fin- 
ished. It  was  called  the  Lustration  or  Suovetaurilia. 
The  first  name  originated  from  the  fact  that  the  cere- 
mony was  a  purification  of  the  people  by  water,  and 
the  second  because  the  sacrifice  on  the  occasion  con- 
sisted of  a  pig,  a  sheep,  and  an  ox,  the  Latin  names 
of  which  were  sus,  ovis,  and  taurus,  these  being  run 
together  in  a  single  manufactured  word.  Words  are 
not  easily  made  to  order,  and  this  one  shows  how 
awkward  they  are  when  they  do  not  grow  naturally. 

On  the  completion  of  the  census  (B.C.  566)  Servius 
ordered  the  members  of  all  the  Centuries  to  assemble 
on  the  Campus  Martius,  which  was  enclosed  in  a  bend 
of  the  Tiber  outside  of  the  walls  that  he  built.  They 
came  in  full  armor,  according  to  rank,  and  the  sight 
must  have  been  very  grand  and  impressive.  Three 
days  were  occupied  in  the  celebration.  Three  times 
were  the  pig,  the  sheep,  and  the  bull  carried  around 
the  great  multitude,  and  then,  amid  the  flaunting  of 
banners,  the  burning  of  incense,  and  the  sounding  of 
trumpets,  the  libation  was  poured  forth,  and  the  in- 
offensive beasts  were  sacrificed  for  the  purification 
of  the  people.  Once  every  five  years  the  inhabitants 
were  thus  counted,  and  once  in  five  years  were  they 
also  purified,  and  in  this  way  it  came  to  pass  that 
that  period  was  known  as  a  lustrum. 

Uneasy  lies  the  head  that  wears  a  crown,  says  the 
proverb,  and  it  was  true  in  the  case  of  Servius,  for  he 
could  never  forget  that  the  people  had  not  voted  in 


A   WICKED  COUPLE.  55 

his  favor.  For  this  reason  he  divided  among  them 
the  lands  that  he  had  taken  from  the  enemies  he 
had  defeated,  and  then,  supposing  that  he  had  ob- 
tained their  good-will,  he  called  upon  them  to  vote 
whether  they  chose  and  ordered  that  he  should  be 
king.  When  the  votes  came  to  be  counted,  Servius^ 
found  that  he  had  been  chosen  with  a  unanimity 
that  had  not  been  manifested  before  in  the  selection 
of  a  sovereign.  Whatever  confidence  he  may  have 
derived  from  this  vote,  his  place  was  not  secure,  and 
his  fatal  enemy  proved  to  be  in  his  own  household. 
It  happened  that  of  the  two  husbands  of  the 
daughters  of  Servius,  one  was  ambitious  and  unprin- 
cipled, and  the  other  quiet  and  peaceable.  The 
same  was  true  of  their  wives,  only  the  unprincipled 
wife  found  herself  mated  with  the  well-behaving  hus- 
band. Now  the  wicked  wife  agreed  with  the  wicked 
husband  that  they  should  murder  their  partners  and 
then  marry  together,  thus  making  a  pair,  both  mem- 
bers of  which  should  be  ambitious  and  without  prin- 
ciple. This  was  accomplished,  and  then  the  wicked 
wife,  whose  name  was  Tullia,  told  her  husband, 
whose  name  was  Lucius  Tarquinius,  that  what  she 
wanted  was  not  a  husband  whom  she  might  live  with 
in  quiet  like  a  slave,  but  one  who  would  remember  of 
whose  blood  he  was,  who  would  consider  that  he  was 
the  rightful  king ;  and  that  if  he  would  not  do  it  he 
had  better  go  back  to  Tarquinii  or  Corinth  and  sink 
into  his  original  race,  thus  shaming  his  father  and 
Tanaquil,  who  had  bestowed  thrones  upon  her  hus- 
band and  her  son-in-law.  The  taunts  and  instiga- 
tions of  Tullia  led  Lucius  to  solicit  the  younger  pa- 


$6  THE  RISE  OF  THE  COMMONS. 

tricians  to  support  him  in  making  an  effort  for  the 
throne.  When  he  thought  he  had  obtained  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  confederates,  he  one  day  rushed  into 
the  forum  at  an  appointed  time,  accompanied  by  a 
body  of  armed  men,  and,  in  the  midst  of  a  commo- 
tion that  ensued,  took  his  seat  upon  the  throne  and 
ordered  the  senate  to  attend  "  King  Tarquinius." 
That  august  body  convened  very  soon,  some  having 
been  prepared  beforehand  for  the  summons,  and 
then  Tarquinius  began  a  tirade  against  Servius,  whom 
he  stigmatized  as  "  a  slave  and  the  son  of  a  slave," 
who  had  favored  the  most  degraded  classes,  and  had, 
by  instituting  the  census,  made  the  fortunes  of  the 
better  classes  unnecessarily  conspicuous,  so  as  to 
excite  the  envy  and  base  passions  of  the  meaner 
citizens.  -\_ 

Servius  came  to  the  senate-house  in  the  midst  of 
the  harangue,  and  called  to  Lucius  to  know  by  what 
audacity  he  had  taken  the  royal  seat,  and  summoned 
the  senate  during  the  life  of  the  sovereign.  Lucius 
replied  in  an  insulting  manner/and,  taking  advantage 
of  the  king's  age,  seized  him  by  the  middle,  carried 
him  out,  and  threw  him  down  the  steps  to  the  bot- 
tom !  Almost  lifeless,  Servius  was  slain  by  emissa- 
ries of  Lucius  as  he  was  making  his  way  to  his  home 
on  the  Esquiline  Hill  (B.C.  534)  The  royal  retinue, 
in  their  fright,  left  the  body  where  it  fell,  and  there 
it  was  when  Tullia,  returning  from  having  congratu- 
lated her  husband,  reached  the  place.  Her  driver, 
terrified  at  the  sight,  stopped,  and  would  have  avoid- 
ed the  king's  corpse,  though  the  narrowness  of  the 
street  made  it  difficult  ;  but  the  insane  daughter  or- 


A    TXAGIC  END. 


57 


dered  him  to  drive  on,  and  stained  and  sprinkled 
herself  with  her  father's  blood,  which  seemed  to  cry 
out  for  vengeance  upon  such  a  cruel  act !  The  ven- 
geance came  speedily,  as  we  shall  see. 


V. 

HOW  A  PROUD   KING  FELL. 

THE  new  king  was  a  tyrant.  He  was  elected  by  no 
general  consent  of  the  people  he  governed  ;  he  al- 
lowed himself  to  be  bound  by  no  laws  ;  he  recognized 
no  limit  to  his  authority  ;  and  he  surrounded  himself 
with  a  body-guard  for  protection  from  the  attacks  of 
any  who  might  wish  to  take  the  crown  from  him  in 
the  way  that  he  had  snatched  it  from  his  prede- 
cessor. As  soon  as  possible  after  coming  to  the 
throne,  he  swept  away  all  privilege  and  right  that 
had  been  conceded  to  the  commons,  commanded 
that  there  should  no  longer  be  any  of  those  assem- 
blages on  the  occasions  of  festivals  and  sacrifices  that 
had  before  tended  to  unite  the  people  and  to  break 
the  monotony  of  their  lives  ;  he  put  the  poor  at  task- 
work, and  mistrusted,  banished,  or  murdered  the 
rich.  To  strengthen  the  position  of  Rome  as  chief 
of  the  confederates  cities,  and  his  own  position  as  the 
ruler  of  Rome,  he  gave  his  daughter  to  Octavius 
Mamilius  of  Tusculum  to  wife  ;  and  to  beautify  the 
capital  he  warred  against  other  peoples,  and  with 
their  spoil  pushed  forward  the  work  on  the  great 


MYSTERIOUS  BOOKS.  59 

temple  on  the  Capitoline    Hill,*  a  wonderful   and 
massy  structure. 

It  is  said  that  Amalthea,  the  mysterious  sibyl  of 
Cumae,  one  day  came  to  Tarquin  with  nine  sealed 
prophetical  books  (which,  she  said,  contained  the 
destiny  of  the  Romans  and  the  mode  to  bring  it 
about),  that  she  offered  to  sell.  The  king  refused, 
naturally  unwilling  to  pay  for  things  that  he  could 
not  examine  ;  and  thereupon  the  unreasonable  being 
went  away  and  destroyed  three  of  the  volumes  that 
she  had  described  as  of  inestimable  value.  Soon  af- 
ter she  returned  and  offered  the  remaining  six  for  the 
price  that  she  had  demanded  for  the  nine.  Once 
more,  the  tyrant  declined  the  offer,  and  again  the 
aged  sibyl  destroyed  three,  and  demanded  the  origi- 
nal price  for  the  remainder.  The  king's  curiosity  was 
now  aroused,  and  he  bought  the  three  books,  upon 
which  the  prophetess  vanished.  The  volumes  were 
placed  under  the  new  temple  on  the  Capitoline,  no 
one  doubting  that  they  actually  contained  precepts 
of  the  utmost  importance.  The  wise-looking  augurs 
came  together,  peered  into  the  rolls,  and  told  the  king 
and  the  people  that  they  were  right,  and  age  after 
age  the  books  were  appealed  to  for  direction,  though, 
as  the  people  never  were  permitted  even  to  peep  into 
the  sacred  cell  in  which  they  were  hidden,  they  never 
could  be  quite  certain  that  the  augurs  who  consulted 
them  found  any  thing  in  them  that  they  did  not  put 
there  themselves. 

*  This  hill  is  said  to  have  received  its  name  from  the  fact  that  as  the 
men  were  preparing  for  the  foundation  of  the  temple,  they  came  upon 
a  human  head,  fresh  and  bleeding,  from  which  it  was  augured  that  the 
spot  was  to  become  the  head  of  the  world.  (Caput,  a  head.) 


60  HOW  A  PROUD  KING  FELL. 

While  Tarquinius  was  going  on  with  his  great  works, 
while  he  was  oppressing  his  own  people  and  conquer- 
ing his  neighbors  uninterruptedly,  he  was  suddenly 
startled  by  a  dire  portent.  A  serpent  crawled  out 
from  beneath  the  altar  in  his  palace  and  coolly  ate 
the  flesh  of  the  royal  sacrifice.  The  meaning  of  this 
appalling  omen  could  not  be  allowed  to  remain  un- 
certain, and  as  no  one  in  Italy  was  able  to  explain  it, 
Tarquin  sent  to  the  oracle  of  Apollo  at  Delphi,  to  ask 
the  signification.  Delphi  is  a  place  situated  in  the 
midst  of  the  most  sublime  scenery  of  Greece,  just 
north  of  the  Gulf  of  Corinth.  Shut  in  on  all  sides  by 
stupendous  cliffs,  among  which  flow  the  inspiring 
waters  of  the  Castalian  Spring,  thousands  of  feet 
above  which  frowns  the  summit  of  Parnassus,  on  which 
Deucalion  is  said  to  have  landed  after  the  deluge,  this 
romantic  valley  makes  a  deep  impression  on  the  mind 
of  the  visitor,  and  it  is  not  strange  that  at  an  age 
when  signs  and  wonders  were  looked  for  in  every  di- 
rection, it  should  have  become  the  home  of  a  sibyl. 

The  king's  messengers  to  Delphi  were  his  two  sons 
and  a  nephew  named  Lucius  Junius  Brutus,  a  young 
man  who  had  saved  his  life  by  taking  advantage 
of  the  fact  that  a  madman  was  esteemed  sacred  by 
the  Romans,  and  assuming  an  appearance  of  stu- 
pidity* at  a  time  when  his  tyrannical  uncle  had  put 
his  brother  to  death  that  he  might  appropriate  his 
wealth.  Upon  hearing  the  question  of  the  king,  the 
oracle  said  that  the  portent  foretold  the  fall  of  Tar- 
quin. The  sons  then  asked  who  should  take  his 

*  Brutus  in  Latin  means  irrational,  dull,  stupid,  brutish,  which 
senses  our  word  ' '  brute  "  preserves. 


A/ 

/uM 


62  HOW  A  PfiOUD  KING  FELL. 

throne,  and  the  reply  was :  "  He  who  shall  first  kiss 
his  mother."  Brutus  had  propitiated  the  oracle  by 
the  present  of  a  hollow  stick  filled  with  gold,  and 
learned  the  symbolical  meaning  of  this  reply.  The 
sons  decided  to  allow  their  remaining  brother  Sextus 
to  know  the  answer,  and  to  determine  by  lot  which 
of  them  should  rule ;  but  Brutus  kept  his  own  coun- 
sel, and  on  reaching  home,  fell  upon  mother  earth,  as 
by  accident,  and  kissed  the  ground,  thus  observing 
the  terms  of  the  oracle. 

The  prophecy  now  hastened  to  its  fulfilment.  As 
the  army  lay  before  the  town  of  Ardea,  belonging  to 
the  Rutulians,  south  of  Rome,  a  dispute  arose  among 
the  sons  of  the  king  and  their  cousin  Collatinus,  as 
to  which  had  the  most  virtuous  wife.  There  being 
nothing  to  keep  them  in  camp,  the  young  men  arose 
from  their  cups  and  rode  to  Rome,  where  they  found 
the  princesses  at  a  banquet  revelling  amid  flowers 
and  wine.  Lucretia,  the  wife  of  Collatinus,  was 
found  at  Collatia  among  her  maidens  spinning,  like 
the  industrious  wife  described  in  the  Proverbs.  The 
evil  passions  of  Sextus  were  aroused  by  the  beauty 
of  his  cousin's  wife,  and  he  soon  found  an  excuse  to 
return  to  the  home  of  Collatinus.  He  was  hospitably 
entertained  by  Lucretia,  who  did  not  suspect  the 
demon  that  he  was,  and  one  night  he  entered  her 
apartment  and  with  vile  threats  overcame  her.  In 
her  terrible  distress,  Lucretia  sent  immediately  for 
her  father,  Lucretius,  and  her  husband,  Collatinus. 
They  came,  each  bringing  a  friend,  Brutus  being  the 
companion  of  the  outraged  husband.  To  them,  with 
bitter  tears,  Lucretia,  clad  in  the  garments  of  mourn- 


A   TEH  RIB  LE   OATH.  63 

ing  and  almost  beside  herself  with  sorrow,  told  the 
story  of  crime,  and,  saying  that  she  could  not  survive 
dishonor,  plunged  a  knife  into  her  bosom  and  fell  in 
the  agony  of  shame  and  death  ! 

At  this  juncture  Brutus  threw  off  the  assumed 
stupidity  that  had  veiled  the  strength  of  his  spirit, 
and  taking  up  the  reeking  knife,  exclaimed :  "  By  this 
blood  most  pure,  I  swear,  and  I  call  you,  O  gods,  to 
witness  my  oath,  that  I  shall  pursue  Lucius  Tarquin 
the  Proud,  his  wicked  wife,  and  all  the  race,  with  fire 
and  sword,  nor  shall  I  permit  them  or  any  other  to 
reign  in  Rome  !  "  So  saying,  the  knife  was  handed 
to  each  of  the  others  in  turn,  and  they  all  took  the 
same  oath  to  revenge  the  innocent  blood.  The  body 
of  Lucretia  was  laid  in  the  forum  of  Collatia,  her 
home,  and  the  populace,  maddened  by  the  sight, 
were  easily  persuaded  to  rise  against  the  tyrant.  A 
multitude  was  collected,  and  the  march  began  to 
Rome,  where  a  like  excitement  was  stirred  up  ;  a 
gathering  at  the  forum  was  addressed  by  Brutus, 
who  recalled  to  memory  not  only  the  story  of 
Lucretia's  wrongs,  but  also  the  horrid  murder  of 
Servius,  and  the  blood-thirstiness  of  Tullia.  On  the 
Campus  Martius  the  citizens  met  and  decreed  that 
the  dignity  of  king  should  be  forever  abolished  and 
the  Tarquins  banished.  Tullia  fled,  followed  by  the 
curses  of  men  and  women  ;  Sextus  found  his  way  to 
Gabii,  where  he  was  slain ;  and  the  tyrant  himself 
took  refuge  in  Caere,  a  city  of  Etruria,  the  country 
of  his  father. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  it  had  been  the  intention 
of  Servius  to  resign  the  kingly  honor,  and  to  institute 


64  HOW  A  PROUD  KING  FELL. 

in  its  stead  the  office  of  Consul,  to  be  jointly  held  by 
two  persons  chosen  annually.  There  seems  to  be 
some  ground  for  this  belief,  because  immediately 
after  the  banishment  of  the  Tarquins,  the  republic  was 
established  with  two  consuls  at  its  head.*  The  first 
to  hold  the  highest  office  were  Lucius  Junius  Brutus 
and  LuciusTarquiniusCollatinus,  husband  of  Lucretia- 
Some  time  after  Tarquin  had  fled  to  Caere,  he 
found  an  asylum  at  Tarquinii,  and  from  that  city 
made  an  effort  to  stir  up  a  conspiracy  in  his  favor  at 
Rome.  He  sent  messengers  ostensibly  to  plead  for 
the  restoration  of  his  property,  but  really  for  the 
purpose  of  exciting  treason.  There  were  'at  Rome 
vicious  persons  who  regretted  that  they  were  obliged 
to  return  to  regular  ways,  and  there  were  patricians 
who  disliked  to  see  the  plebeians  again  enjoying 
their  rights.  Some  of  these  were  ready  to  take  up 
the  cause  of  the  deposed  tyrant.  The  conspirators 
met  for  consultation  in  one  of  the  dark  chambers  of 
a  Roman  house,  and  their  conference  was  overheard. 
They  were  brought  before  the  consuls  in  .the 
Comitium,  and,  to  the  dismay  of  Brutus,  two  of  his 
own  sons  were  found  among  the  number.  With  the 
unswerving  virtue  of  a  Roman  or  a  Spartan,  he  con- 
demned them  to  death,  and  they  were  executed  be- 

*  The  custom  of  confiding  the  chief  civil  authority  and  the  command 
of  the  army  to  two  magistrates  who  were  changed  each  year,  was  not 
given  up  as  long  as  the  republic  endured,  but  towards  its  end,  Cinna 
maintained  himself  in  the  office  alone  for  almost  a  year,  and  Pompey 
was  appointed  sole  consul  to  keep  him  from  becoming  dictator.  The 
authority  of  consul  was  usurped  by  both  Cinna  and  Marius.  The 
consuls  were  elected  by  the  comitia  of  the  centuries.  They  could  not 
appear  in  public  without  the  protection  of  twelve  lictors,  who  bore 
bundles  of  twigs  (fasces)  and  walked  in  single  file  before  their  chiefs. 


THE  PEOPLE'S  FRIEND.  65 

fore  his  eyes.  The  discovery  of  the  plot  of  Tarquin 
put  an  end  to  his  efforts  to  regain  any  foothold  at 
Rome  by  peaceable  methods,  and  he  made  the 
appeal  to  arms.  These  plots  led  to  the  banishment 
of  the  whole  Tarquinian  house,  even  the  consul 
whose  troubles  had  brought  the  result  about  being 
obliged  to  lay  down  his  office  and  leave  the  city. 
Publius  Valerius  was  appointed  in  his  stead.  For  a 
time  he  was  in  office  alone,  and  several  times  he  was 
re-chosen.  He  was  afterwards  known  as  Poplicola, 
"  the  people's  friend,"  on  account  of  certain  laws 
that  he  passed,  limiting  the  power  of  the  aristocrats 
and  alleviating  the  condition  of  the  plebeians.* 

In  pursuance  of  his  new  plans,  Tarquin  obtained 
the  help  of  the  people  of  Veil  and  Tarquinii  and 
marched  against  Rome.  He  was  met  by  an  army 
under  Brutus,  and  a  bloody  battle  was  fought  near 
Arsia.  Brutus  was  killed  and  the  Etruscans  were 
about  to  claim  the  victory,  when,  in  the  night,  the 
voice  of  the  god  Silvanus  was  heard  saying  that  the 
killed  among  the  Etruscans  outnumbered  by  one 
man  those  of  the  Romans.  Upon  this  the  Etruscans 
fled,  knowing  that  ultimate  victory  would  not  be 
theirs.  This  is  not  the  way  that  a  modern  army 
would  have  acted.  Valerius  returned  to  Rome  in 

*  When  Valerius  was  consul  alone  he  began  to  build  a  house  for 
himself  on  the  Velian  Hill,  and  a  cry  was  raised  that  he  intended  to 
make  himself  king,  upon  which  he  stopped  building.  The  people  were 
ashamed  of  their  conduct  and  granted  him  land  to  build  on.  One  of 
his  laws  enacted  that  whoever  should  attempt  to  make  himself  king 
should  be  devoted  to  the  gods,  and  that  any  one  might  kill  him.  When 
Valerius  died  he  was  mourned  by  the  matrons  for  ten  months.  See 
Plutarch,  Poplicola. 


66  HOW  A  PROUD  KING  FELL. 

triumph,  and  the  matrons  mourned  Brutus  as  the 
avenger  of  Lucretia,  an  entire  year. 

This  is  the  time  of  heroes  and  of  highly  orna- 
mented lays,  and  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  truth 
covered  up  beneath  a  mass  of  fulsome  bombast.  It 
is  related  that  Tarquinius  now  obtained  the  help  of 
Prince  or  Lars  Porsena  of  Clusium  in  Etruria,  and 
with  a  large  army  proceeded  undisturbed  quite  up  to 
the  Janiculum  Hill  on  his  march  to  Rome.  There 
he  found  himself  separated  from  the  object  of  his 
long  struggle  only  by  the  wooden  bridge.  We  may 
picture  to  ourselves  the  city  stirred  to  its  centre  by 
the  fearful  prospect  before  it.  The  bridge  that  had 
been  of  so  much  use,  that  the  pontifices  had  so  care- 
fully built  and  preserved,  must  be  cut  away,  or  all 
was  lost.  At  this  critical  juncture,  the  brave  Hora- 
tius  Codes,  with  one  on  either  hand,  kept  the  enemy 
at  bay  while  willing  arms  swung  the  axes  against  the 
supports  of  the  structure,  and  when  it  was  just 
ready  to  fall  uttered  a  prayer  to  Father  Tiber, 
plunged  into  the  muddy  torrent,  fully  armed  as  he 
was,  and  swam  to  the  opposite  shore  amid  the 
plaudits  of  the  rejoicing  people,  as  related  in  the 
ballad  of  Lord  Macaulay.  Then  it  was,  too,  that 
the  people  determined  to  erect  a  bridge  which  could 
be  more  readily  removed  in  case  of  necessity.  Baf- 
fled in  this  attempt  to  enter  Rome,  the  enemy  laid 
siege  to  the  city,  and  as  it  was  unprepared,  it  soon  suf- 
fered the  distress  of  famine.  Then  another  brave  man 
arose,  Caius  Mucius  by  name,  and  offered  to  go  to 
the  camp  of  the  invaders  and  kill  the  hated  king. 
He  was  able  to  speak  the  Etruscan  language,  and  felt 
that  a  little  audacity  was  all  that  he  needed  to  carry 


A   STRONG  MAN-  WANTED.  6? 

his  mission  out  safely.  Though  he  went  boldly,  he 
killed  a  secretary  dressed  in  purple,  instead  of  his 
master,  and  was  caught  and  threatened  with  torture. 
Putting  his  right  hand  into  the  fire  on  the  altar  near 
by,  he  held  it  there  until  it  was  destroyed,*  and  said 
that  suffering  had  no  terrors  for  him,  nor  for  three 
hundred  of  his  companions  who  had  all  vowed  to  kill 
the  king.  The  Roman  writers  say  that,  thereupon 
Porsena  took  hostages  from  them  and  made  peace. 
It  is  true  that  peace  was  made,  but  Rome  was 
forced  to  agree  not  to  use  iron  except  in  cultivating 
the  earth,  and  she  lost  ten  of  her  thirty  "  regions," 
being  all  the  territory  that  the  kings  had  conquered 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  Tiber,  f 

Tarquin  had  been  foiled  in  his  attempts  to  regain 
his  throne,  but  still  he  tried  again,  the  last  time 
having  the  aid  of  his  son-in-law,  Mamilius  of  Tuscu- 
lum.  It  was  a  momentous  juncture.  The  weakened 
Romans  were  to  encounter  the  combined  powers  of 
the  thirty  Latin  cities  that  had  formerly  been  in 
league  with  them.  They  needed  the  guidance  of 
one  strong  man  ;  but  they  had  decreed  that  there 
should  never  be  a  king  again,  and  so  they  appointed 
a  "dictator"  with  unlimited  power,  for  a  limited 
time.  We  shall  find  them  resorting  to  this  expedient 
on  other  occasions  of  sudden  and  great  -trouble.  A 
fierce  struggle  followed  at  Lake  Regillus,  in  which 
the  Latins  were  turned  to  flight  through  the  inter- 
vention of  Castor  and  Pollux,  who  fought  at  the 
head  of  the  Roman  knights  on  foaming  white  steeds. 
There  was  no  other  quarter  to  which  Tarquinius 

*  Mucius  was  after  this  called  Scsevola,  the  left-handed. 
f  See  Niebuhr's  Lectures,  chapter  xxiv. 


68  HOW  A   PROUD  KING  FELL. 

could  turn  for  help,  and  he  therefore  fled  to  Cumae, 
where  he  died  after  a  wretched  old  age.  A  temple 
was  erected  on  the  field  of  the  battle  of  Lake  Re- 
gillus  in  honor  of  Castor  and  Pollux,  and  thither 
annually  on  the  fifteenth  of  July  the  Roman  knights 
were  wont  to  pass  in  solemn  procession,  in  memory 
of  the  fact  that  the  twins  had  fought  at  the  head  of 
their  columns  in  the  day  of  distress  when  fortune 
seemed  to  be  about  to  desert  the  national  cause.  At 
this  battle  Caius  Marcius,  a  stripling  descended  from 
Ancus  Marcius,  afterwards  known  as  Coriolanus,  re- 
ceived the  oaken  crown  awarded  to  the  man  who 
should  save  the  life  of  a  Roman  citizen,  because  he 
struck  down  one  of  the  Latins,  in  the  presence  of  the 
commander,  just  as  he  was  about  to  kill  a  Roman 
soldier. 

In  the  year  504  B.C.,  there  was  in  the  town  of 
Regillum,  a  man  of  wealth  and  importance,  who,  at  ( 
the  time  of  the  war  with  the  Sabines,  had  advocated 
peace,  and  as  his  fellow-citizens  were  firmly  opposed 
to  him,  left  them,  accompanied  by  a  long  train  of 
followers  (much  as  we  suppose  the  first  Tarquin  left 
Tarquinii),  and  took  up  his  abode  in  Rome.  The 
name  of  this  man  was  Atta  Clausus,  or  perhaps  Atta 
Claudius,  but,  however  that  may  be,  he  was  known 
at  Rome  as  Appius  Claudius.  He  was  received  into 
the  ranks  of  the  patricians,  ample  lands  were  as- 
signed to  him  and  his  followers,  and  he  became  the 
ancestor  of  one  of  the  most  important  Roman  fam- 
ilies, that  of  Claudius,  noted  through  a  long  history 
for  its  hatred  of  the  plebeians.  His  line  lasted  some 
five  centuries,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  observe. 


VI. 

THE  ROMAN  RUNNYMEDE. 

THE  establishment  of  the  republic  marked  an  era 
in  the  history  of  Rome.  The  people  had  decreed,  as 
has  been  said,  that  for  them  there  never  should  be  a 
king,  and  the  law  was  kept  to  the  letter ;  though,  if 
they  meant  that  supreme  authority  should  never  be 
held  among  them  by  one  man,  it  was  violated  many 
times.  The  story  of  Rome  is  unique  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  for  it  is  not  the  record  of  the  life  of  one 
great  country,  but  of  a  city  that  grew  to  be  strong 
and  successfully  established  its  authority  over  many 
countries.  The  most  ancient  and  the  most  remote 
from  the  sea  of  the  cities  of  Latium,  Rome  soon  be- 
came the  most  influential,  and  began  to  combine  in 
itself  the  traits  of  the  peoples  near  it ;  but  owing  to 
the  singular  strength  and  rare  impressiveness  of  the 
national  character,  these  were  assimilated,  and  the 
inhabitant  of  the  capital  remained  distinctively  a 
Roman  in  spite  of  his  intimate  association  with  men 
of  different  origin  and  training. 

The  citizen  of  Rome  was  practical,  patriotic,  and 
faithful  to  obligation  ;  he  loved  to  be  governed  by  in. 
flexible  law;  and  it  was  a  fundamental  principle  with 
him  that  the  individual  should  be  subordinate  to  the 


70  THE  ROMAN  RUNNYMEDE. 

state.  His  kings  were  either  organizers,  like  Numa 
and  Ancus  Marcius,  or  warriors,  like  Romulus  and 
Tullus  Hostilius  ;  they  either  made  laws,  like  Servius, 
or  they  enforced  them  with  the  despotism  of  Tar- 
quinius  Superbus.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  conceive 
of  such  a  majestic  power  emanating  from  a  territory 
so  insignificant.  We  hardly  realize  that  Latium  did 
not  comprise  a  territory  quite  fifty  miles  by  one  hun- 
dred in  extent,  and  that  it  was  but  a  hundred  miles 
from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Adriatic.  It  was  but 
a  short  walk  from  Rome  to  the  territory  of  the 
Etruscans,  and  when  Tarquin  found  an  asylum  at 
Caere,  he  did  not  separate  himself  by  twenty  miles 
from  the  scene  of  his  tyranny.  Ostia  was  scarcely 
more  distant,  and  one  might  have  ridden  before  the 
first  meal  of  the  day  to  Lavinium,  or  Alba,  or  Veii, 
or  to  Ardea,  the  ancient  city  of  the  Rutuli.  It  is 
important  to  keep  these  facts  in  mind  as  we  read  the 
story  of  the  remarkable  city. 

All  towns  were  built  on  hills  in  these  early  days, 
for  safety  in  case  of  war,  as  well  as  because  the  val- 
leys were  insalubrious,  but  this  is  not  a  peculiarity  of 
the  Romans,  for  in  New  England  in  the  late  ages  of 
our  own  ancestors  they  were  obliged  to  follow  the 
same  custom.  On  the  tops  and  slopes  of  seven  hills, 
as  they  liked  to  remind  themselves,  the  Romans  built 
their  city.  They  were  not  impressive  elevations, 
though  their  sides  were  sharp  and  rocky,  for  the 
loftiest  rose  less  than  three  hundred  feet  above  the 
sea  level.  Their  summits  were  crowned  with  groves 
of  beech  trees  and  oaks,  and  in  the  lower  lands  grew 
osiers  and  other  smaller  varieties. 


TRAITS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  ^ \ 

The  earlier  occupations  of  the  Roman  people 
were  war  and  agriculture,  or  the  pasturage  of  flocks 
and  herds.  They  raised  grapes  and  made  wines  ; 
they  cultivated  the  oil  olive  and  knew  the  use  of  its 
fruit.  They  found  copper  in  their  soil  and  made  a 
pound  (as)  of  it  their  unit  of  value,  but  it  was  so  cheap 
that  ten  thousand  ases  were  required  to  buy  a  war 
horse,  though  cattle  and  sheep  were  much  lower. 
They  yoked  their  oxen  and  called  the  path  they 
occupied  njugerum  (Jugum,  a  cross-beam,  or  a  yoke), 
and  this  in  time  came  to  be  their  familiar  standard  of 
square  measure,  containing  about  two  thirds  of  an 
acre.  Two  of  these  were  assigned  to  a  citizen,  and 
seven  were  the  narrow  limit  to  which  only  one's 
landed  possessions  were  for  a  long  time  allowed  to 
extend.  In  time  commerce  was  added  to  the  pur- 
suits of  the  men,  and  with  it  came  fortunes  and 
improved  dwellings  and  public  buildings. 

Laziness  and  luxury  were  frowned  upon  by  the 
early  Romans.  Mistress  and  maid  worked  together 
in  the  affairs  of  the  household,  like  Lucretia  and 
other  noble  women  of  whom  history  tells,  and  the 
man  did  not  hesitate  to  hold  the  plow,  as  the  exam- 
ple of  Cincinnatus  will  show  us.  Time  was  precious, 
and  thrift  and  economy  were  necessary  to  success. 
The  father  was  the  autocrat  in  the  household,  and 
exercised  his  power  with  stern  rigidity. 

Art  was  backward  and  came  from  abroad ;  of  lit- 
erature there  was  none,  long  after  Greece  had  passed 
its  period  of  heroic  poetry.  The  dwellings  of  the 
citizens  were  low  and  insignificant,  though  as  time 
passed  on  they  became  more  massive  and  important. 


72  THE  ROMAN.  RUNNYMEDE. 

The  vast  public  structures  of  the  later  kings  were 
comparable  to  the  task-work  of  the  builders  of  the 
Egyptian  pyramids,  and  they  still  strike  us  with  as- 
tonishment and  surprise. 

The  religion  of  these  strong  conquerors  was  nar- 
row, severe,  and  dreary.  The  early  fathers  wor- 
shipped native  deities  only.  They  recognized  gods 
everywhere — in  the  home,  in  the  grove,  and  on  the 
mountain.  They  erected  their  altars  on  the  hills; 
they  had  their  Lares  and  Penates  to  watch  over 
their  hearthstones,  and  their  Vestal  Virgins  kept 
everlasting  vigil  near  the  never-dying  fires  in  the 
temples.  With  the  art  of  Greece  that  made  itself 
felt  through  Etruria,  came  also  the  influence  of  the 
Grecian  mythology,  and  Jupiter,  Juno,  and  Minerva 
found  a  shrine  on  the  top  of  the  Capitoline,  where 
the  first  statue  of  a  deity  was  erected.  The  mysteri- 
ous Sibylline  Books  are  also  a  mark  of  the  Grecian 
influence,  coming  from  Cumae,  a  colony  of  Magna 
Graecia. 

During  the  period  we  have  considered,  the  city 
passed  through  five  distinct  stages  of  political  organ- 
ization. The  government  at  first,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  an  elective  monarchy,  the  electors  being  a  patri- 
archal aristocracy.  After  the  invasion  of  the  Sabines, 
there  was  a  union  with  that  people,  the  sovereignty 
being  held  by  rulers  chosen  from  each  ;  but  it  was  not 
long  before  Rome  became  the  head  of  a  federal 
state.  The  Tarquins  established  a  monarchy,  which 
rapidly  degenerated  into  an  offensive  tyranny,  which 
aroused  rebellion  and  at  last  led  to  the  republic. 
We  have  noted  that  in  Greece  in  the  year  510  B.C., 


SUFFERINGS  OF  'THE  COMMONS.  73 

the  tyranny  of  the  family  of  Pisistratus  was  likewise 
overturned. 

During  all  these  changes,  the  original  aristocrats 
and  their  descendants  firmly  held  their  position  as 
the  Populus  Romanus,  the  Roman  People,  insist- 
ing that  every  one  else  must  belong  to  an  inferi- 
or order,  and,  as  no  body  of  men  is  willing  to  be 
condemned  to  a  hopelessly  subordinate  position  in 
a  state,  there  was  a  perpetual  antagonism  between 
the  patricians  and  the  plebeians,  between  the  aris- 
tocracy and  the  commonalty.  This  led  to  a  tempo- 
rary change  under  Servius  Tullius,  when  property 
took  the  place  of  pedigree  in  establishing  a  man's 
rank  and  influence ;  but,  owing  to  the  peculiar 
method  of  voting  adopted,  the  power  of  the  com- 
mons was  not  greatly  increased.  However,  they 
had  made  their  influence  felt,  and  were  encouraged. 
The  overturning  of  the  scheme  by  Tarquin  favored 
a  union  of  the  two  orders  for  the  punishment  of  that 
tyrant,  and  they  combined;  but  it  was  only  for  a 
time.  When  the  danger  had  been  removed,  the  tie 
was  found  broken  and  the  antagonism  rather  in- 
creased, so  that  the  subsequent  history  for  five  gen- 
erations, ^though  exceedingly  interesting,  is  largely 
a  record  of  the  struggles  of  the  commons  for  relief 
from  the  burdens  laid  upon  them  by  the  aristocrats. 

The  father  passed  down  to  his  son  the  story  of  the 
oppression  of  the  patricians,  and  the  son  told  the 
same  sad  narrative  to  his  offspring.  The  mother 
mourned  with  her  daughter  over  the  sufferings 
brought  upon  them  by  the  rich,  for  whom  their  poof 
father  and  brothers  were  obliged  to  fight  the  battle? 


74  THE  ROMAN  RUNNYMEDE. 

while  they  were  not  allowed  to  share  the  spoil,  nor 
to  divide  the  lands  gained  by  their  own  prowess. 
The  struggle  was  not  so  much  between  patrician  and 
plebeian  as  between  the  rich  and  the  poor.  It  was 
intimately  connected  with  the  uses  of  money  in 
those  times.  What  could  the  rich  Roman  do  with 
his  accumulations?  He  might  buy  land  or  slaves,  or 
he  might  become  a  lender;  to  a  certain  extent  he 
could  use  his  surplus  in  commerce ;  but  of  these  its 
most  remunerative  employment  was  found  in  usury. 
As  there  were  no  laws  regulating  the  rates  of  inter- 
est, they  became  exorbitant,  and,  as  it  was  custo- 
mary to  compound  it,  debts  rapidly  grew  beyond 
the  possibility  of  payment.  As  the  rich  made  the 
laws,  they  naturally  exerted  their  ingenuity  to  frame 
them  in  suth  a  way  as  to  enable  the  lender  to  col- 
lect his  dues  with  promptness,  and  with  little  regard 
for  the  feelings  or  interests  of  the  debtor. 

It  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for  us  to  form  a 
proper  conception  of  the  magnitude  of  the  wrongs 
involved  in  the  system  of  money-lending  at  Rome 
during  the  period  of  the  republic.  The  small  farm- 
ers were  ever  needy,  and  came  to  their  wealthy 
neighbors  for  accommodation  loans.  If  these  were 
not  paid  when  due,  the  debtor  was  liable  to  be 
locked  up  in  prison,  to  be  sold  into  slavery,  with  his 
children,  wife,  and  grandchildren ;  and  the  heartless 
law  reads,  that  in  case  the  estate  should  prove  in- 
sufficient to  satisfy  all  claims,  the  creditors  were 
actually  authorized  to  cut  the  body  to  pieces,  that  each 
Shylock  might  take  the  pound  of  flesh  that  he  claimed. 

At  last  the  severity  of  the  lenders  overreached  it- 


FLAUNTING  RAGS  AND   CLANKING  CHAINS.   ?$ 

self.  It  was  in  the  year  four  hundred  and  ninety- 
five,  B.C.,  that  a  poor,  but  brave  debtor,  one  who  had 
been  at  the  very  front  in  the  wars,  broke  out  of  his 
prison,  and  while  the  wind  flaunted  his  rags  in  the 
face  of  the  populace,  clanked  his  chains  and  told  the 
story  of  his  calamities  so  effectually  in  words  of 
natural  eloquence,  that  the  commons  were  aroused 
to  madness,  and  resolved  at  last  to  make  a  vigorous 
effort  and  seek  redress  for  their  wrongs  in  a  way  that 
could  not  be  resisted.  The  form  of  this  man  stands 
out  forever  on  the  pages  of  Roman  history,  as  he 
entered  the  forum  with  all  the  badges  of  his  misery 
upon  him.*  His  pale  and  emaciated  body  was  but 
partially  covered  by  his  wretched  tatters ;  his  long 
hair  played  about  his  shoulders,  and  his  glaring  eyes 
and  the  grizzled  beard  hanging  down  before  him 
added  to  his  savage  wildness.  As  he  passed  along, 
he  uncovered  the  scars  of  near  twoscore  battles  that 
remained  upon  his  breast,  and  explained  to  enquirers 
that  while  he  had  been  serving  in  the  Sabine  war,  his 
house  had  been  pillaged  and  burned  by  the  enemy ; 
that  when  he  had  returned  to  enjoy  the  sweets  of 
the  peace  he  had  helped  to  win,  he  had  found  that 
his  cattle  had  been  driven  off,  and  a  tax  imposed. 
To  meet  the  debts  that  thronged  upon  him,  and  the 
interest  by  which  they  were  aggravated,  he  had 
stripped  himself  of  his  ancestral  farms.  Finally, 
pestilence  had  overtaken  him,  and  as  he  was  not 
able  to  work,  his  creditor  had  placed  him  in  a  house 
of  detention,  the  savage  treatment  in  which  was 
shown  by  the  fresh  stripes  upon  his  bleeding  backt 

*  See  Livy,  Book  II.,  chapter  xxiii, 


?6  THE  ROMAN  RUNNYMEDE. 

At  the  moment  a  war  was  imminent,  and  the 
forum — the  entire  city,  in  fact — already  excited,  was 
filled  with  the  uproar  of  the  angry  plebeians.  Many 
confined  for  debt  broke  from  their  prison  houses, 
and  ran  from  all  quarters  into  the  crowds  to  claim 
protection.  The  majesty  of  the  consuls  was  insuffi- 
cient to  preserve  order,  and  while  the  discord  was 
rapidly  increasing,  horsemen  rushed  into  the  gates 
announcing  that  an  enemy  was  actually  upon  them, 
marching  to  besiege  the  city.  The  plebeians  saw  that 
their  opportunity  had  arrived,  and  when  proud  Ap- 
pius  Claudius  called  upon  them  to  enroll  their  names 
for  the  war,  they  refused  the  summons,  saying  that 
the  patricians  might  fight  their  own  battles  ;  that  for 
themselves  it  was  better  to  perish  together  at  home 
rather  than  to  go  to  the  field  and  die  separated. 
Threatened  with  war  beyond  the  gates,  and  with 
riot  at  home,  the  patricians  were  forced  to  promise 
to  redress  the  civil  grievances.  It  was  ordered  that 
no  one  could  seize  or  sell  the  goods  of  a  soldier 
while  he  was  in  camp,  or  arrest  his  children  or  grand- 
children, and  that  no  one  should  detain  a  citizen  in 
prison  or  in  chains,  so  as  to  hinder  him  from  enlist- 
ing in  the  army.  When  this  was  known,  the  released 
prisoners  volunteered  in  numbers,  and  entered  upon 
the  war  with  enthusiasm.  The  legions  were  vic- 
torious, and  when  peace  was  declared,  the  plebeians 
anxiously  looked  for  the  ratification  of  the  promises 
made  to  them. 

Their  expectations  were  disappointed.  They  had, 
however,  seen  their  power,  and  were  determined  to 
act  upon  their  new  knowledge.  Without  undue 


A   SECESSION.  77 

haste,  they  protected  their  homes  on  the  Aventine, 
and  retreated  the  next  year  to  a  mountain  across 
the  Anio,  about  three  miles  from  the  city,  to  a  spot 
which  afterwards  held  a  place  in  the  memories  of 
the  Romans  similar  to  that  which  the  green  meadow 
on  the  Thames  called  Runnymede  has  held  in  Brit- 
ish history  since  the  June  day  when  King  John  met 
his  commons  there,  and  gave  them  the  great  charter 
of  their  liberties. 

The  plebeians  said  calmly  that  they  would  no 
longer  be  imposed  upon ;  that  not  one  of  them 
would  thereafter  enlist  for  a  war  until  the  public 
faith  were  made  good.  They  reiterated  the  declara- 
tion that  the  lords  might  fight  their  own  battles,  so 
that  the  perils  of  conflict  should  lie  where  its  advan- 
tages were.  When  the  situation  of  affairs  was 
thoroughly  understood,  Rome  was  on  fire  with 
anxiety,  and  the  enforced  suspense  filled  the  citizens 
with  fear  lest  an  external  enemy  should  take  the 
opportunity  for  a  successful  onset  upon  the  city. 
Meanwhile  the  poor  secessionists  fortified  their  camp, 
but  carefully  refrained  from  actual  war.  The  people 
left  in  the  city  feared  the  senators,  and  the  senators 
in  turn  dreaded  the  citizens  lest  they  should  do  them 
violence.  It  was  a  time  of  panic  and  suspense.  After 
consultation,  good  counsels  prevailed  in  the  senate, 
and  it  was  resolved  to  send  an  embassy  to  the 
despised  and  down-trodden  plebeians,  who  now 
seemed,  however,  to  hold  the  balance  of  power,  and 
to  treat  for  peace,  for  there  could  be  no  security 
until  the  secessionists  had  returned  to  their  homes. 

The   spokesman  on  the  occasion  was   Menenius 


?8  THE  ROMAN  RUNNYMEDE. 

Agrippa  Lanatus,  who  was  popular  with  the  people 
and  had  a  reputation  for  eloquence.  In  the  course 
of  his  argument  he  related  the  famous  apologue 
which  Shakespeare  has  so  admirably  used  in  his  first 
Roman  play.  He  said  : 

"  At  a  time  when  all  the  parts  of  the  body  did  not,  as  now,  agree 
together,  but  the  several  members  had  each  its  own  scheme,  its  own 
language,  the  other  parts,  indignant  that  every  thing  was  procured  for 
the  belly  by  their  care,  labor,  and  service,  and  that  it,  remaining  quiet 
in  the  centre,  did  nothing  but  enjoy  the  pleasures  afforded  it,  con* 
spired  that  the  hands  should  not  convey  food  to  the  mouth,  nor  the 
mouth  receive  it  when  presented,  nor  the  teeth  chew  it.  They  wished 
by  these  measures  to  subdue  the  belly  by  famine,  but,  to  their  dismay, 
they  found  that  they  themselves  and  the  entire  body  were  reduced  to 
the  last  degree  of  emaciation.  It  then  became  apparent  that  the 
service  of  the  belly  was  by  no  means  a  slothful  one  ;  that  it  did  not  so 
much  receive  nourishment  as  supply  it,  sending  to  all  parts  of  the  body 
that  blood  by  which  the  entire  system  lived  in  vigor." 

Lanatus  then  applied  the  fable  to  the  body  politic, 
showing  that  all  the  citizens  must  work  in  unity  if 
its  greatest  welfare  is  to  be  attained.  The  address 
of  this  good  man  had  its  desired  effect,  and  the 
people  were  at  last  willing  to  listen  to  a  proposition 
for  their  return.  It  was  settled  that  there  should  be 
a  general  release  of  all  those  who  had  been  handed 
over  to  their  creditors,  and  a  cancelling  of  debts,  and 
that  two  of  the  plebeians  should  be  selected  as  their 
protectors,  with  power  to  veto  objectionable  laws, 
their  persons  being  as  inviolable  at  all  times  as  were 
those  of  the  sacred  messengers  of  the  gods.  These 
demands,  showing  that  the  plebeians  did  not  seek 
political  power,  were  agreed  to,  the  Valerian  laws 
were  reaffirmed,  and  a  solemn  treaty  was  concluded, 
each  party  swearing  for  itself  and  its  posterity,  with 


THE   TREATY  OF  THE  SACRED  MOUNT.       79 

all  the  formality  of  representatives  of  foreign  nations. 
The  two  leaders  of  the  commons,  Caius  Licinius  and 
Lucius  Albinius,  were  elected  the  first  Tribunes 
of  the  People,  as  the  new  officers  were  called,  with 
two  yEdiles  to  aid  them.'55'  They  were  not  to  leave  the 
city  during  their  term  of  office  ;  their  doors  being 
open  day  and  night,  that  all  who  needed  their  pro- 
tection might  have  access  to  them.  The  hill  upon 
which  this  treaty  had  been  concluded  was  ever  after 
known  as  the  Sacred  Mount  ;  its  top  was  enclosed 
and  consecrated,  an  altar  being  built  upon  it,  on 
which  sacrifices  were  offered  to  Jupiter,  the  god  of 
terror  and  deliverance,  who  had  allowed  the  com- 
mons to  return  home  in  safety,  though  they  had 
gone  out  in  trepidation.  Henceforth  the  commons 
were  to  be  protected  ;  they  were  better  fitted  to 
share  the  honors  as  well  as  the  benefits  of  their 
country,  and  the  threatened  dissolution  of  the  nation 
was  averted. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  year,  Lanatus,  the  success- 
ful intercessor,  died,  and  it  was  found  that  his 
poverty  was  so  great  that  none  but  the  most  ordinary 
funeral  could  be  afforded.  Thereupon  the  plebeians 
contributed  enough  to  give  him  a  splendid  burial ; 
but  the  sum  was  afterwards  presented  to  his  children, 
because  the  senate  decreed  that  the  funeral  expenses 
should  be  defrayed  by  the  state.  (B.C.  494.) 

*  The  duties  of  the  gediles  were  various,  and  at  first  they  were  simple 
assistants  of  the  tribunes.  ^Edes  means  house  or  temple,  and  the 
sediles  seem  to  have  derived  their  name  from  the  fact  that  they  had 
the  care  of  the  temple  of  Ceres,  goddess  of  agriculture,  a  very  im- 
portant divinity  in  Rome  as  well  as  in  Greece. 


VII. 

HOW  THE  HEROES  FOUGHT  FOR  A  HUNDRED 
YEARS. 

THERE  is  a  long  story  connected  with  the  young 
stripling  who,  at  the  battle  of  Lake  Regillus  re- 
ceived the  oaken  crown  for  saving  the  life  of  a  Ro- 
man citizen.  The  century  after  that  event  was  filled 
with  wars  with  the  neighboring  peoples,  and  in  one 
of  them  this  same  Caius  Marcius  fought  so  bravely 
at  the  taking  of  the  Latin  town  of  Corioli  that  he 
was  ever  after  known  as  Coriolanus  (B.C.  493).  He 
was  a  proud  patrician,  and  on  one  occasion  when  he 
was  candidate  for  the  office  of  consul,  behaved  with 
so  much  unnecessary  haughtiness  toward  the  plebei- 
ans that  they  refused  him  their  votes.*  After 
a  while  a  famine  came  to  Rome, — famines  often 
came  there, — and  though  in  a  former  emergency 
of  the  kind  Coriolanus  had  himself  obtained  corn 
and  beef  for  the  people,  he  was  now  so  irri- 
tated by  his  defeat  that  when  a  contribution  of 
grain  arrived  from  Syracuse,  in  Sicily  (B.C.  491),  he 
actually  advocated  that  it  should  not  be  distributed 
among  the  people  unless  they  would  consent  to  give 

*  The  whole  interesting  story  is  found  in  Plutarch's  Lives,  and  in 
Shakespeare's  play  which  bears  the  hero's  name. 


HAUGHTY  CORIOLANUS.  8 1 

up  their  tribunes  which  had  been  assured  to  them  by 
the  laws  of  the  Sacred  Mount !  This  enraged  the 
plebeians  very  much,  and  they  caused  Coriolanus  to 
be  summoned  for  trial  before  the  comitia  of  the 
tribes,  which  body,  in  spite  of  his  acknowledged  ser- 
vices to  the  state,  condemned  him  to  exile.  When 
he  heard  this  sentence,  Coriolanus  angrily  deter- 
mined to  cast  in  his  lot  with  his  old  enemies  the  Vol- 
scians,  and  raised  an  army  for  them  with  which  he 
marched  victoriously  towards  Rome.  As  he  went, 
he  destroyed  the  property  of  the  plebeians,  but  pre- 
served that  of  the  patricians.  The  people  were  in 
the  direst  state  of  anxious  fear,  and  some  of  the 
senators  were  sent  out  to  plead  with  the  dreaded 
warrior  for  the  safety  of  the  city.  These  venerable 
ambassadors  were  repelled  with  scorn.  Again,  the 
sacred  priests  and  augurs  were  deputed  to  make  the 
petition,  this  time  in  the  name  of  the  gods  of 
the  people  ;  but,  alas,  they  too  entreated  in  vain. 
Then  it  was  remembered  that  the  stern  man  had  al- 
ways reverenced  his  mother,  and  she  with  an  array 
of  matrons,  accompanied  by  the  little  ones  of  Co- 
riolanus, went  out  to  add  their  efforts  to  those  which 
had  failed.  As  they  appeared,  Coriolanus  exclaimed, 
as  Shakespeare  put  it : 

"  I  melt,  and  am  not 

Of  stronger  earth  than  others. — My  mother  bows  ; 
As  if  Olympus  to  a  molehill  should 
In  supplication  nod  ;  and  my  young  boy 
Hath  an  aspect  of  intercession,  which, 
Great  Nature  cries  :   '  Deny  not.'     Let  the  Volsces 
Plow  Rome  and  harrow  Italy  ;  I  '11  never 
Be  such  a  gosling  to  obey  instinct  ;  but  stand, 
As  if  a  man  were  author  of  himself, 
And  knew  no  other  kin  ! " 


82  HOW  THE  HEROES  FOUGHT. 

The  strong  man  is  finally  melted,  however,  by  the 
soft  influences  of  the  women,  and  as  he  yields,  says 
to  them : 

"  Ladies,  you  deserve 

To  have  a  temple  built  you  ;  all  the  swords 
In  Italy,  and  her  confederate  arms, 
Could  not  have  made  this  peace  ! " 

A  temple  was  accordingly  built  in  memory  of  this 
event,  and  in  honor  of  Feminine  Fortune,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  women  of  Rome,  for  the  senate  had  de- 
creed that  any  wish  they  might  express  should  be 
gratified.  As  for  Coriolanus,  he  is  said  to  have  lived 
long  in  banishment,  bewailing  his  misfortune,  and 
saying  that  exile  bore  heavily  on  an  old  man.  The 
entire  story,  heroic  and  tragic  as  it  is  related  to  us, 
is  not  substantiated,  and  we  do  not  really  know 
whether  if  true  it  should  be  assigned  to  the  year  488 
B.C.,  or  to  a  date  a  score  of  years  later. 

During  all  the  century  we  are  now  considering,  the 
plebeians  were  slowly  gaining  ground  in  their  at- 
tempts to  improve  their  political  condition,  though 
they  did  not  fail  to  meet  rebuffs,  and  though  they 
were  many  times  unjustly  treated  by  their  proud  op- 
ponents. These  efforts  at  home  were  complicated, 
too,  by  the  fact  that  nearly  all  the  time  there  was 
war  with  one  or  another  of  the  adjoining  nations. 
Treaties  were  made  at  this  period  with  some  of  the 
neighboring  peoples,  by  a  good  friend  of  the  ple- 
beians, Spurius  Cassius,  who  was  consul  in  the  year 
486,  and  these  to  a  certain  extent  repaired  the  losses 
that  had  followed  the  war  with  Porsena  after  the  fall 
of  the  Tarquins.  Cassius  tried  to  strengthen  the 


PUBLIC  LANDS  AND  SQUA  TTERS.  83 

state  internally,  too,  by  dividing  certain  lands  among 
the  people,  and  by  requiring  rents  to  be  paid  for 
other  tracts,  and  setting  the  receipts  aside  to  pay  the 
commons  when  they  should  be  called  out  as  soldiers. 
This  is  known  as  the  first  of  the  many  Agrarian 
Laws  (ager,  a  meadow,  a  field)  that  are  recorded  in 
Roman  history,  though  something  of  the  same  na- 
ture is  said  to  have  existed  in  the  days  of  Servius 
Tullius. 

There  were  public  and  private  lands  in  Roman 
territory,  just  as  there  are  in  the  territory  of  the 
United  States,  and  in  those  days,  just  as  in  our  own, 
there  were  "  squatters,"  as  they  have  been  called  in 
our  history,  who  settled  upon  public  lands  without 
right,  and  without  paying  any  thing  to  the  govern- 
ment for  the  privileges  they  enjoyed.  Laws  regulat- 
ing the  use  and  ownership  of  the  public  lands  were 
passed  from  time  to  time  until  Julius  Caesar  (B.C. 
59)  enacted  the  last.  They  had  for  their  object  the 
relief  of  poverty  and  the  stopping  of  the  clamors  of 
the  poor,  the  settling  of  remote  portions  of  territory, 
the  rewarding  of  soldiers,  or  the  extension  of  the 
popularity  of  some  general  or  other  leader.  The 
plan  was  not  efficient  in  developing  the  country, 
because  those  to  whom  the  land  was  allotted  were 
often  not  at  all  adapted  to  pursue  agriculture  suc- 
cessfully, and  because  the  evils  of  poverty  are  not  to 
be  met  in  that  way. 

It  was  a  sign  of  the  power  of  the  people  that  this 
proposition  of  Cassius  should  have  been  successful; 
but  it  irritated  the  patricians  exceedingly,  because 
they  had  derived  large  wealth  from  the  improper  use 


84  HOW  THE  HEROES  FOUGHT. 

of  the  public  lands.  The  following  year  consuls 
came  into  power  who  were  more  in  sympathy  with 
the  patricians,  and  they  accused  Cassius  of  laying 
plans  to  be  made  king.  His  popularity  was  under- 
mined, and  his  reputation  blasted.  Finally  he  was 
declared  guilty  of  treason  by  his  enemies,  and  con- 
demned to  be  scourged  and  beheaded,  while  his 
house  was  razed  to  the  ground.  For  seven  years 
after  this  one  of  the  consuls  was  always  a  member  of 
the  powerful  family  of  the  Fabii,  which  had  been  in- 
fluential in  thus  overthrowing  Cassius.  The  Fabians 
had  opposed  the  laws  dividing  the  lands,  and  they 
now  refused  to  carry  them  out.  The  result  was  that 
the  commons,  deprived  of  their  rights,  again  went  to 
the  extreme  of  refusing  to  fight  for  the  state ;  and 
when  on  one  occasion  they  were  brought  face  to  face 
with  an  enemy,  they  refused  to  conquer  when  they 
had  victory  in  their  hands.  A  little  later  they  went 
one  step  further,  and  attempted  to  stop  entirely  the 
raising  of  an  army.  One  of  the  patrician  family 
just  mentioned,  Marcus  Fabius,  proved  too  noble 
willingly  to  permit  such  strife  between  the  classes  to 
interfere  with  the  progress  of  the  state,  and  deter- 
mined to  conciliate  the  commons.  He  succeeded, 
and  led  them  to  battle,  and,  though  his  army  won 
victory,  was  himself  killed  in  the  combat  (B.C.  481). 
The  other  members  of  the  family  took  up  the  cause, 
cared  kindly  for  the  wounded,  and  thus  still  further 
ingratiated  themselves  with  the  army.  The  next 
year  (B.C.  480)  another  Fabian  was  consul,  and  he 
too  determined  to  stand  up  for  the  laws  of  Spurius 
Cassius.  He  was  treated  with  scorn  by  his  fellow 


THE  FABII  FOR  THE  COMMONS.  8$ 

patricians,  and  finding  that  he  could  not  carry  out 
his  principles  and  live  at  peace  in  Rome,  determined 
to  exile  himself.  Going  out  with  his  followers,  he 
established  a  camp  on  the  side  of  the  river  Cremera, 
a  few  miles  above  Rome,  and  alone  carried  on  a  war 
against  the  fortified  city  of  Veii.  The  unequal  strife 
was  continued  for  two  years;  but  then  the  brave 
family  was  completely  cut  off.  There  was  not  a 
member  left,  excepting  one  who  seems  to  have  re- 
fused to  renounce  the  former  opinions  of  the  family, 
and  had  remained  at  Rome  *  (B.C.  477).  He  became 
the  ancestor  of  the  Fabii  of  after-history. 

The  support  thus  received  from  the  aristocratic 
Fabii  encouraged  the  commons,  and  the  sacrifice  of 
the  family  exasperated  them.  They  felt  anew  that 
it  was  possible  for  them  to  exert  some  power  in  the 
state,  and  they  promptly  accused  one  of  the  consuls, 
Titus  Menenius,  of  treason,  because  he  had  allowed 
his  army  to  lie  inactive  near  Cremera  while  the  Fabii 
were  cut  off  before  him.  Menenius  was  found  guilty, 
and  died  of  vexation  and  shame.  The  aristocrats 
now  attempted  to  frighten  the  commons  by  treachery 
and  assassination,  and  succeeded,  until  one,  Volero 
Publilius,  arose  and  took  their  part.  He  boldly  pro- 
posed a  law  by  which  the  tribunes  of  the  people, 
instead  of  being  chosen  by  the  comitia  of  the  cen- 
turies, in  which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  aristocrats  had 
the  advantage,  should  be  chosen  by  the  comitia  of 
the  tribes,  in  which  there  was  no  such  inferiority  of 

*  The  Fabii  were  cut  off  on  the  Cremera  on  the  i6th  of  July,  a  day 
aftenvards  marked  by  a  terrible  battle  on  the  Allia,  in  which  the 
Gauls  defeated  the  Romans. 


86  HO  W  THE  HEROES  FOUGHT. 

the  commons.  Though  violently  opposed  by  the 
patricians,  this  law  was  passed,  in  the  year  471  B.C. 
Other  measures  were,  however,  still  necessary  to 
give  the  plebeians  a  satisfactory  position  in  the 
state. 

In  the  year  458,  the  ancient  tribe  of  the  ^Equians 
came  down  upon  Rome,  and  taking  up  a  position 
upon  Mount  Algidus,  just  beyond  Alba  Longa,  re- 
pulsed an  army  sent  against  them,  and  surrounded 
its  camp.  We  can  imagine  the  clattering  of  the 
hoofs  on  the  hard  stones  of  the  Via  Latina  as  five 
anxious  messengers,  who  had  managed  to  escape  be- 
fore it  was  too  late,  hurried  to  Rome  to  carry  the  dis- 
heartening news.  All  eyes  immediately  turned  in  one 
direction  for  help.  There  lived  just  across  the  Tiber 
a  member  of  an  old  aristocratic  family,  one  Lucius 
Quintius,  better  known  as  Cincinnatus,  because  that 
name  had  been  added  to  his  others  to  show  that 
he  wore  his  hair  long  and  in  curls.  Lucius  was 
promptly  appointed  Dictator — that  is,  he  was  offered 
supreme  authority  over  all  the  state, — and  messen- 
gers were  sent  to  ask  him  to  accept  the  direction  of 
affairs.  He  was  found  at  work  on  his  little  farrn^ 
which  comprised  only  four  jugera,  either  digging  or 
plowing,  and  after  he  had  sent  for  his  toga,  or  outer 
garment,  which  he  had  thrown  off  for  convenience  in 
working,  and  had  put  it  on,  he  listened  to  the  message, 
and  accepted  the  responsibility.  The  next  morning 
he  appeared  on  the  forum  by  daylight,  like  an  early  • 
rising  farmer,  and  issued  orders  that  no  one  should 
attend  to  private  business,  but  that  all  men  of  proper 
age  should  meet  him  on  the  field  of  Mars  by  sunset 


CINCINNATUS  MAKES  QUICK  WORK.  87 

with  food  sufficient  for  five  days.  At  the  appointed 
hour  the  army  was  ready,  and,  so  rapidly  did  it  march, 
that  before  midnight  the  camp  of  the  enemy  was 
reached.  The  ^Equians,  not  expecting  such  prompt- 
ness, were  astonished  to  hear  a  great  shout,  and  to 
find  themselves  shut  up  between  two  Roman  armies, 
both  of  which  advanced  and  successfully  hemmed 
them  in.  They  were  thus  forced  to  surrender,  and 
Cincinnatus  obliged  them  to  pass  under  the  yoke,  in 
token  of  subjugation^  (Sub,  under,  jugum,  a  yoke.) 
The  yoke  in  this  case  was  made  of  two  spears 
fastened  upright  in  the  ground  with  a  third  across 
them  at  the  top.  In  the  short  space  of  twenty-four 
hours,  Lucius  Quintius  Cincinnatus  raised  an  army, 
defeated  an  enemy,  and  laid  down  hi^  authority 
as  dictator !  It  was  decreed  that  he  should  enter  the 
city  in  triumph.  He  rode  in  his  chariot  through  the 
streets,  the  rejoicing  inhabitants  spreading  tables  in 
front  of  their  houses,  laden  with  meat  and  drink  for 
the  soldiers.  The  defeated  chiefs  walked  before  the 
victor,  and  after  them  followed  the  standards  that 
had  been  won,  while  still  farther  behind  were  the 
soldiers,  bearing  the  rich  spoils.  It  was  customary  in 
those  days  for  a  conqueror  to  take  every  thing  from 
the  poor  people  whom  he  had  vanquished, — homes, 
lands,  cattle,  wealth  of  every  sort, — and  then  even  to 
carry  the  men,  women,  and  children  away  into  slavery 
themselves.  Thus  a  subjugated  country  became  a 
desolation,  unless  the  conquerors  sent  settlers  to 
occupy  the  vacant  homes  and  cultivate  the  neg- 
lected farms.  Bad  and  frightful  as  war  is  now,  it  is 
not  conducted  on  such  terrible  principles  as  were  fol- 
lowed in  early  times. 


HOW  THE  HEROES  FOUGHT. 

Though  from  time  to  time  concessions  were  made 
to  the  commons,  they  continued  to  feel  that  they 
were  deprived  of  many  of  their  just  political  rights, 
and  the  antagonism  remained  lively  between  them 
and  the  patricians.  The  distresses  that  they  suffered 
were  real,  and  endured  even  for  two  centuries  after  the 
time  assigned  to  Coriolanus.  We  have  now,  indeed, 
arrived  at  a  period  of  their  sore  trial,  though  it  was 
preceded  by  some  events  that  seemed  to  promise 
them  good.  In  the  year  454,  Lucius  Icilius,  one  of 
the  tribunes  of  the  people,  managed  to  have  the  whole 
of  the  Aventine  Hill  given  up  to  them,  and  as  it  was, 
after  the  Capitoline,  the  strongest  of  all  the  seven, 
their  political  importance  was  of  course  increased.  It 
was  but  a  few  years  later  (B.C.  451)  when,  according 
to  tradition,  after  long  and  violent  debates  it  was  de- 
cided that  a  commission  should  be  sent  to  Athens, 
or  to  some  colony  of  the  Greeks,  to  learn  what 
they  could  from  the  principles  of  government 
adopted  by  that  ancient  and  wise  people,  which 
was  then  at  the  very  height  of  its  prosperity  and 
fame.  After  this  commission  had  made  its  report 
(in  the  year  B.C.  450),  all  the  important  magistrates, 
including  the  consuls,  tribunes,  and  aediles,  were 
replaced  by  ten  patricians,  known  as  Decemvirs 
(decent,  ten,  vir,  a  man),  appointed  to  prepare  a 
new  code  of  laws. 

The  chief  of  this  body  was  an  Appius  Claudius, 
son  of  the  haughty  patrician  of  the  same  name,  and 
equally  as  haughty  as  he  ever  was.  The  laws  of 
Rome  before  this  time  had  been  in  a  mixed  condi- 
tion, partly  written  and  partly  unwritten  and  tradi- 


TEN  MEN  AND   "  TWELVE    TABLES."          89 

tional ;  but  now  all  were  to  be  reduced  to  order,  and 
incorporated  with  those  two  laws  that  could  not  be 
touched — that  giving  the  Aventine  to  the  plebeians, 
and  the  sacred  law  settled  on  the  Roman  Runny- 
mede  after  the  first  secession  to  the  Sacred  Mount. 
After  a  few  months  the  ten  men  produced  ten  laws, 
which  were  written  out  and  set  up  in  public  places 
for  the  people  to  read  and  criticise.  Suggestions  for 
alterations  might  be  made,  and  if  the  ten  men  ap- 
proved them,  they  made  them  a  part  of  their  report, 
after  which  all  was  submitted  to  the  senate  and 
the  curiae,  and  finally  approved.  The  whole  code  of 
laws  was  then  engraved  on  ten  tables  of  enduring 
brass  and  put  up  in  the  comitium,  where  all  might 
see  them  and  have  no  excuse  for  not  obeying  them. 
We  do  not  know  exactly  what  all  these  laws  were, 
but  enough  has  come  down  to  us  to  make  it  clear 
that  they  were  drawn  up  with  great  fairness,  because 
they  met  the  expectations  of  the  people ;  and  this 
shows,  of  course,  that  the  political  power  of  the  ple- 
beians was  now  considerable,  because  ten  patricians 
would  not  have  made  the  laws  fair,  unless  there  had 
been  a  strong  influence  exerted  over  them,  obliging 
them  to  be  careful  in  their  action.  The  ten  had 
acted  so  well,  indeed,  that  it  was  thought  safe  and 
advisable  to  continue  the  government  in  the  same 
form  for  another  year.  This  proved  a  mistake,  for 
Appius  managed  to  gain  so  much  influence  that  he 
was  the  only  one  of  the  original  ten  who  was  re- 
elected,  and  he  was  able  also  to  cause  nine  others  to 
be  chosen  with  him  who  were  weak  men,  whom  he 
felt  sure  that  he  could  control.  When  the  new  de- 


90  HOW  THE  HEROES  FOUGHT. 

cemvirs  came  into  power,  they  soon  added  two  new 
laws  to  the  original  ten,  and  the  whole  are  now 
known,  therefore,  as  the  "  Twelve  Tables."  The 
additional  laws  proved  so  distasteful  to  the  peo- 
ple that  they  were  much  irritated,  and  seemed 
ready  to  revolt  against  the  government  on  the 
slightest  provocation.  The  decemvirs  became  ex- 
ceedingly ostentatious  and  haughty,  too,  in  their 
bearing,  as  well  as  tyrannical  in  their  acts,  so  that 
the  city  was  all  excitement  and  opposition  to  the 
government  that  a  few  weeks  before  had  been  liked 
so  well.  Nothing  was  needed  to  bring  about  an 
outbreak  except  a  good  excuse,  and  that  wag  not 
long  waited  for.  Nations  do  not  often  have  to 
wait  long  for  a  cause  for  fighting,  if  they  want  to 
find  one. 

A  war  broke  out  with  the  Sabines  and  the  ALqui- 
ans  at  the  same  time,  and  armies  were  sent  against 
them  both,  commanded  by  friends  of  the  plebeians. 
Lucius  Sicinius  Dentatus,  one  of  the  bravest,  was 
sent  out  at  the  head  of  one  army  with  some  traitors, 
who,  under  orders  from  the  decemvirs,  murdered 
him  in  a  lonely  place.  The  other  commander  was 
Lucius  Virginius,  who  will  be  known  as  long  as 
literature  lasts  as  father  of  the  beautiful  but  unfor- 
tunate Virginia.  While  Virginius  was  fighting  the 
city's  war  against  the  ^Equians,  the  tyrant  Appius 
was  plotting  to  snatch  from  him  his  beloved  daugh- 
ter, who  was  affianced  to  the  tribune  Lucius  Icilius, 
the  same  who  had  caused  the  Aventine  to  be  as- 
signed to  the  plebeians.  At  first  wicked  Appius 
endeavored  to  entice  the  maiden  from  her  noble 


THE   TRAGEDY  OF  VIRGINIA.  9! 

lover,  but  without  success ;  and  he  therefore  deter- 
mined to  take  her  by  an  act  of  tyranny,  under  color 
of  law.  He  caused  one  of  his  minions  to  claim  her 
as  his  slave,  intending  to  get  her  into  his  hands 
before  her  father  could  hear  of  the  danger  and 
return  from  the  army.  The  attempt  was  not  suc- 
cessful, for  trusty  friends  carried  the  news  quickly, 
and  Virginius  reached  Rome  in  time  to  hear  the 
cruel  sentence  by  which  the  tyrant  thought  to 
gratify  his  evil  intention.  Before  Virginia  could  be 
taken  from  the  forum,  Virginius  drew  her  aside,  sud- 
denly snatched  a  sharp  knife  from  a  butcher's  stall, 
and  plunged  it  in  her  bosom,  crying  out :  "  This  is 
the  only  way,  my  child,  to  keep  thee  free  !  "  Then, 
turning  to  Appius,  he  held  the  bloody  knife  on  high 
and  cried :  "  On  thy  head  be  the  curse  of  this 
blood."  Vainly  did  Appius  call  upon  the  crowd  to 
arrest  the  infuriated  father ;  the  people  stood  aside 
to  allow  him  to  pass,  as  though  he  had  been  some- 
thing holy,  and  he  rushed  onward  toward  his  portion 
of  the  army,  which  was  soon  joined  by  the  troops 
that  Dentatus  had  commanded.  Meantime,  Icilius 
held  up  the  body  of  his  loved  one  before  the  people 
in  the  forum,  and  bade  them  gaze  on  the  work  of 
their  decemvir.  A  tumult  was  quickly  stirred  up,  in 
the  midst  of  which  Appius  fled  to  his  house,  and  the 
senate,  hastily  summoned,  cast  about  for  means  to 
stop  the  wild  indignation  of  the  exasperated  popu- 
lace ;  for  the  people  were  then,  as  they  are  now, 
always  powerful  in  the  strength  of  outraged  feeling 
or  righteous  indignation. 

All  was  vain.     The  two  armies   returned  to  the 


92  HOW  THE  HEROES  FOUGHT. 

Aventine  united,  and  from  the  other  parts  of  the 
city  the  plebeians  flocked  to  them.  This  was  the 
second  secession,  and,  like  the  first,  it  was  successful. 
The  decemvirs  were  compelled  to  resign,  their  places 
being  filled  by  two  consuls ;  Appius  was  thrown 
into  prison,  to  await  judgment,  and  took  his  life 
there  ;  and  ten  tribunes  of  the  people  were  chosen 
to  look  out  for  the  interests  of  the  commons,  Vir- 
ginius  and  Icilius  being  two  of  the  number.  Thus, 
for  the  first  time  since  the  days  of  Publius  Valerius, 
the  control  of  government  was  in  the  hands  of  men 
who  wished  to  carry  it  on  for  the  good  of  the 
country,  rather  than  in  the  interest  of  a  party. 
Thus  good  came  out  of  evil. 

Among  the  laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables,  the  par- 
ticular one  which  had  at  this  time  excited  the  ple- 
beians was  a  statute  prohibiting  marriages  between 
members  of  their  order  and  the  patricians.  There 
had  been  such  marriages,  and  this  made  the  opposi- 
tion to  the  law  all  the  more  bitter,  though  no  one 
was  powerful  enough  to  cause  it  to  be  abolished. 
There  now  arose  a  tribune  of  the  people  who  pos- 
sessed force  and  persistence,  Caius  Canuleius  by 
name,  and  he  urged  the  repeal  of  this  law.  For  the 
third  time  the  plebeians  seceded,  this  time  going 
over  the  Tiber  to  the  Janiculum  Hill,  where  it  would 
have  been  possible  for  them  to  begin  a  new  city,  if 
they  had  not  been  propitiated.  Canuleius  argued 
with  vigor  against  the  consuls  who  stood  up  for  the 
law,  and  at  last  he  succeeded.  In  the  year  445  the 
restriction  was  removed,  and  plebeian  girls  were  at 
liberty  to  become  the  wives  of  patrician  men,  with 


THE  GORGEOUS  CENSORS.  93 

the  assurance  that  their  children  should  enjoy  the 
rank  of  their  fathers.  This  right  of  intermarriage 
led  in  time  to  the  entrance  of  plebeians  upon  the 
highest  magistracies  of  the  city,  and  it  was,  therefore, 
of  great  political  importance. 

It  was  agreed  in  444  B.C.  that  the  supreme  au- 
thority should  be  centred  in  two  magistrates,  called 
Military  Tribunes,  who  should  have  the  power  of 
consuls,  and  might  be  chosen  from  the  two  orders. 
The  following  year,  however  (443  B.C.),  the  patricians 
were  allowed  to  choose  from  their  own  order  two 
officers  known  as  Censors,  who  were  always  con- 
sidered to  outrank  all  others,  excepting  the  dictator, 
when  there  was  one  of  those  extraordinary  magis- 
trates. The  censors  wore  rich  robes  of  scarlet,  and 
had  almost  kingly  dignity.  They  made  the  register 
of  the  citizens  at  the  time  of  the  census,*  adminis- 
tered the  public  finances,  and  chose  the  members  of 
the  senate,  besides  exercising  many  other  important 
duties  connected  with  public  and  private  life.  The 
term  of  office  of  the  censors  at  first  was  a  lustrum  or 
five  years,  but  ten  years  later  it  was  limited  to 
eighteen  months.  In  42 1,  the  plebeians  made  further 
progress,  for  the  ^office  of  quaestor  (paymaster)  was 
opened  to  them,  and  they  thus  became  eligible  to 
the  senate.  A  score  of  years  passed,  however,  before 
any  plebeian  was  actually  chosen  to  the  office  of 
military  tribune  even,  owing  to  the  great  influence 
of  the  patricians  in  the  comitia  centuriata. 

All   the  time  that  these  events  were  occurring, 

*  After  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins,  the  consuls  took  the  census, 
and  this  was  the  first  appointment  of  special  officers  for  the  purpose. 


94  HOW  THE  HEROES  FOUGHT. 

Rome  was  carrying  on  intermittent  wars  with  the 
surrounding  nations,  and  by  her  own  efforts,  as  well 
as  by  the  help  of  her  allies,  was  adding  to  her 
warlike  prestige.  Nothing  in  all  the  story  of  war 
exceeds  in  interest  the  poetical  narrative  that  re- 
lates to  the  siege  and  fall  of  the  Etruscan  city  of 
Veii,  with  which,  since  the  days  of  Romulus,  Rome 
had  so  many  times  been  involved  in  war. 

Year  after  year  the  army  besieged  the  strong 
place,  and  there  seemed  no  hope  that  its  walls  would 
fall.  It  was  allied  with  Fidenae,  another  city  half- 
way between  it  and  Rome,  which  was  taken  by 
means  of  a  mine  in  the  year  426.  A  peace  with 
Veii  ensued,  after  which  the  incessant  war  began 
again,  and  fortune  sometimes  favored  one  side  and 
sometimes  the  other.  The  siege  of  the  city  can  be 
fittingly  compared  to  that  of  Troy,  Seven  years 
had  passed  without  result,  when  of  a  sudden,  in  the 
midst  of  an  autumn  drought,  the  waters  of  the  Alban 
Lake,  away  off  to  the  other  side  of  Rome,  began  to 
rise.  Higher  and  still  higher  they  rose  without  any 
apparent  cause,  until  the  fields  and  houses  were  cov- 
ered, and  then  they  found  a  passage  where  the  hills 
were  lowest,  and  poured  down  in  a  great  torrent  upon 
the  plains  below.  Unable  to  understand  this  por- 
tent, for  such  it  was  considered,  the  Romans  called 
upon  the  oracle  at  Delphi  for  counsel,  and  were  told 
that  not  until  the  waters  should  find  their  way  into 
the  lowlands  by  a  new  channel,  should  not  rush  so 
impetuously  to  the  sea,  but  should  water  the  coun- 
try, could  Veii  be  taken.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to 
say  that  no  one  but  an  oracle  or  a  poet  could  see  the 


A    WONDERFUL  TUNNEL.  95 

connection  between  the  draining  of  a  lake  fifteen 
miles  from  Rome  on  one  side,  and  the  capture  of  a 
fortress  ten  miles  away  on  the  other.  However,  the 
lake  was  drained.  With  surprising  skill,  a  tunnel  was 
built  directly  through  the  rocky  hills,  and  the 
waters  allowed  to  flow  over  the  fields  below.  The 
traveller  may  still  see  this  ancient  structure  per- 
forming its  old  office.  It  is  cut  for  a  mile  and  a 
half,  mainly  through  solid  rock,  four  feet  wide  and 
from  seven  to  ten  in  height.  The  lake  is  a  thousand 
feet  above  the  sea-level,  and  of  very  great  depth. 

Marcus  Furius  Camillus  is  the  hero  who  now 
comes  to  the  rescue.  He  was  chosen  dictator  in  or- 
der that  he  might  push  the  war  with  the  utmost 
vigor.  The  people  of  Veii  sent  messengers  to  him 
to  sue  'for  peace,  but  their  appeal  was  in  vain. 
Steadily  the  siege  went  on.  We  must  not  picture  to 
ourselves  the  army  of  Camillus  using  the  various  en- 
gines of  war  that  the  Romans  became  acquainted 
with  in  later  times  through  intercourse  with  the 
Greeks,  but  trusting  more  to  their  strong  arms  and 
their  simple  means  of  undermining  the  walls  or  break- 
ing down  the  gates.  Their  bows  and  slings  and  ladders 
were  weak  instruments  against  strong  stone  walls,  and 
the  siege  was  a  long  and  wearisome  labor.  It  proved 
so  long  in  this  case,  indeed,  that  the  soldiers,  unable 
to  make  visits  to  their  homes  to  plant  and  reap  their 
crops,  were  for  the  first  time  paid  for  their  services. 

As  the  unsuccessful  ambassadors  from  Veii  turned 
away  from  the  senate-house,  one  of  them  uttered  a 
fearful  prophecy,  saying  that  though  the  unmerciful 
Romans  feared  neither  the  wrath  of  the  gods  nor  the 


96  HOW  THE  HEROES  FOUGHT. 

vengeance  of  men,  they  should  one  day  be  rewarded 
for  their  hardness  by  the  loss  of  their  own  country. 

Summer  and  winter  the  Roman  army  camped 
before  the  doomed  city,  but  it  did  not  fall.  At  last, 
to  ensure  success,  Camillus  began  a  mine  or  tunnel 
under  the  city,  which  he  completed  to  a  spot  just 
beneath  the  altar  in  the  temple  of  Juno.  When  but 
a  single  stone  remained  to  be  taken  away,  he  uttered 
a  fervent  prayer  to  the  goddess,  and  made  a  vow  to 
Apollo  consecrating  a  tenth  part  of  the  spoil  of  the 
city  to  him.  He  then  ordered  an  assault  upon  the 
walls,  and  at  the  moment  when  the  king  was  making 
an  offering  on  the  altar  of  Juno,  and  the  augur  was 
telling  him  that  victory  in  the  contest  was  to  fall  to 
him  who  should  burn  the  entrails  then  ready,  the 
Romans  burst  from  their  tunnel,  finished  the  sacrifice, 
and  rushing  to  the  gates,  let  their  own  army  in.  The 
city  was  sacked,  and  as  Camillus  looked  on,  he  ex- 
claimed :  "  What  man's  fortune  was  ever  so  great  as 
mine?"  A  magnificent  triumph  was  celebrated  in 
Rome.  Day  after  day  the  temples  were  crowded, 
and  Camillus,  hailed  as  a  public  benefactor,  rode  to 
the  capitol  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  four  white  horses. 
The  territory  of  the  conquered  city  was  divided 
among  the  patricians,  but  Camillus  won  their  hatred 
after  a  time  by  calling  upon  them  to  give  up  a  tenth 
part  of  their  rich  booty  to  found  a  temple  to  Apollo, 
in  pursuance  of  his  vow,  which  he  claimed  to  have 
forgotten  meanwhile.  It  was  not  long  before  he 
was  accused  of  unfairness  in  distributing  the  spoils, 
some  of  which  he  was  said  to  have  retained  himself, 
and  when  he  saw  that  the  people  were  so  incensed 


A   MALEDICTION.  97 

at  him  that  condemnation  was  inevitable,  he  went 
into  banishment.  As  he  went  away,  he  added  a 
malediction  to  the  prophecy  of  the  ambassador 
from  Veii,  and  said  that  the  republic  might  soon 
have  cause  to  regret  his  loss.  He  was,  as  he  had 
expected,  condemned,  a  fine  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  ases  being  laid  upon  him. 

Thus  was  the  territory  of  Rome  greatly  increased, 
after  a  hundred  years  of  war  and  intrigue,  and  thus 
did  the  warrior  to  whom  the  city  owed  the  most,  and 
whom  it  had  professed  to  honor,  go  from  it  with  a 
malediction  on  his  lips.  Let  us  see  how  the  ill  omens 
were  fulfilledc 


VIII. 

A  BLAST  FROM  BEYOND  THE  NORTH-WIND. 

WHEN  the  Greeks  shivered  in  the  cold  north-wind, 
they  thought  that  Boreas,  one  of  their  divinities  who 
dwelt  beyond  the  high  mountains,  had  loosened  the 
blast  from  a  mysterious  cave.  The  North  was  to 
them  an  unknown  region.  Far  beyond  the  hills  they 
thought  there  dwelt  a  nation  known  as  Hyper- 
boreans, or  people  beyond  the  region  of  Boreas,  who 
lived  in  an  atmosphere  of  feathers,  enjoying  Arcadian 
happiness,  and  stretching  their  peaceful  lives  out  to 
a  thousand  years.  That  which  is  unknown  is  fright- 
ful to  the  ignorant  or  the  superstitious,  and  so  it  was 
that  the  North  was  a  land  in  which  all  that  was 
alarming  might  be  conjured  up.  The  inhabitants  of 
the  Northern  lands  were  called  Gauls  by  the  Romans. 
They  lived  in  villages  with  no  walls  about  them,  and 
had  no  household  furniture  ;  they  slept  in  straw,  or 
leaves,  or  grass,  and  their  business  in  life  was  either 
agriculture  or  war.  They  were  hardy,  tall,  and  rough 
in  appearance  ;  their  hair  was  shaggy  and  light  in 
color  compared  with  that  of  the  Italians,  and  their 
fierce  appearance  struck  the  dwellers  under  sunnier 
climes  with  dread. 

These  warlike  people  had  come  from  the  plains  of 


THE    TERRIBLE  GAULS.  99 

Asia,  and  in  Central  and  Northern  Europe  had  in- 
creased to  such  an  extent  that  they  could  at  length 
find  scarcely  enough  pasturage  for  their  flocks.  The 
mountains  were  full  of  them,  and  it  was  not  strange 
that  some  looked  down  from  their  summits  into  the 
rich  plains  of  Italy,  and  then  went  thither;  and, 
tempted  by  the  crops,  so  much  more  abundant  than 
they  had  ever  known,  and  by  the  wine,  which  gave 
them  a  new  sensation,  at  last  made  their  homes 
there.  It  was  a  part  of  their  life  to  be  on  the  move, 
and  by  degrees  they  slipped  farther  and  farther  into 
the  pleasant  land.  They  flocked  from  the  Hercynian 
forests,  away  off  in  Bohemia  or  Hungary,  and 
swarmed  over  the  Alps  ;  they  followed  the  river  Po 
in  its  course,  and  they  came  into  the  region  of  the 
Apennines  too.*  It  was  they  who  had  weakened  the 
Etruscans  and  made  it  possible  for  the  Romans  to 
capture  Veii.  Afterwards  they  came  before  the  city 
of  Clusium  (B.C.  391),  and  the  people  in  distress 
begged  for  aid  from  Rome.  No  help  was  given,  but 
ambassadors  were  sent  to  warn  the  invaders  cour- 
teously not  to  attack  the  friends  of  the  Roman 
people  who  had  done  them  no  harm.  Such  a  request 
might  have  had  an  effect  upon  a  nation  that  knew 
the  Romans  better,  but  the  fierce  Northerners  who 
knew  nothing  of  courtesy  replied  that  if  the  Clusians 
would  peaceably  give  up  a  portion  of  their  lands,  no 
harm  should  befall  them  ;  but  that  otherwise  they 
should  be  attacked,  and  that  in  the  presence  of  the 

*  No  one  knows  exactly  when  the  Gauls  first  entered  Northern  Italy. 
Some  think  that  it  was  as  long  back  as  the  time  of  the  Tarquins, 
while  others  put  it  only  ten  er  twenty  years  before  the  battle  of  the 
Allia— 410-400  B,c, 


IOO      A   BLAST  FROM  BEYOND  THE  NORTH-WIND 

Romans,  who  might  thus  take  home  an  account  of 
how  the  Gauls  excelled  all  other  mortals  in  bravery. 
Upon  being  asked  by  what  right  they  proposed  to 
take  a  part  of  the  Clusian  territory,  Brennus,  the 
leader  of  the  barbarians,  replied  that  all  things  be- 
longed to  the  brave,  and  that  their  right  lay  in  their 
trusty  swords. 

In  the  battle  that  ensued,  the  Roman  ambassadors 
fought  with  the  Clusians,  and  one  of  them  killed  a 
Gaul  of  great  size  and  stature.  This  was  made  the 
basis  for  an  onset  upon  Rome  itself.  Then  the 
Romans  must  have  remembered  how  just  before  the 
hero  of  Veii  had  gone  into  banishment,  a  good  and 
respectable  man  reported  to  the  military  tribunes 
that  one  night  as  he  was  going  along  the  street  near 
the  temple  of  Vesta,  he  heard  a  voice  saying  plainly 
to  him  :  "  Marcus  Caedicius,  the  Gauls  are  coming  ! " 
Probably  they  remembered,  too,  how  lightly  they 
esteemed  the  information,  and  how  even  the  tribunes 
made  sport  of  it.  Now  the  Northern  scourge  was 
actually  rushing  down  upon  them,  and  Camillus  was 
gone  !  In  great  rage  the  invaders  pushed  on  towards 
the  city,  alarming  all  who  came  in  their  way  by  their 
numbers,  their  fierceness,  and  the  violence  with  which 
they  swept  away  all  opposition.  There  was  little 
need  of  fear,  however,  for  the  rough  men  took  noth- 
ing ffom  the  fields,  and,  as  they  passed  the  cities, 
cried  out  that  they  were  on  their  way  to  Rome,  and 
that  they  considered  the  inhabitants  of  all  cities  but 
Rome  friends  who  should  receive  no  harm. 

The  Romans  had  a  proverb  to  the   effect   that 
whom  the  gods  wish  to  destroy  they  first  make  mad, 


"  TEARFUL  ALLIA.n  IOI 

and,  according  to  their  historian  Livy,  it  was  true  in 
this  case,  for  when  the  city  was  thus  menaced  by  a 
new  enemy,  rushing  in  the  intoxication  of  victoryi 
and  impelled  by  the  fury  of  wrath  and  the  thirst  for 
vengeance,  they  did  not  take  any  but  the  most 
ordinary  precautions  to  protect  themselves;  leaving 
to  the  usual  officers  the  direction  of  affairs,  and  not 
bestirring  themselves  as  much  as  they  did  when 
threatened  by  the  comparatively  inferior  forces  of 
the  neighboring  states.  They  even  neglected  the  pre- 
scribed religious  customs  and  the  simplest  precautions 
of  war.  When  they  sent  out  their  army  they  did  not 
select  a  fit  place  for.  a  camp,  nor  build  ramparts  be- 
hind which  they  might  retreat,  and  they  drew  up  the 
soldiers  in  such  a  way  that  the  line  was  unusually 
weak  in  the  parts  it  presented  to  the  on-rushing  enemy. 
Under  such  unpropitious  circumstances  the  im- 
petuous Gauls  were  met  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Al- 
lia,  ten  miles  from  Rome,  on  the  very  day  on  which 
the  Fabii  had  been  destroyed  by  the  Etruscans  the 
century  before  (July  16,  390).  The  result  was  that 
terror  took  possession  of  the  soldiers,  and  the  Gauls 
achieved  an  easy  victory,  so  easy,  indeed,  that  it  left 
them  in  a  state  of  stupefied  surprise.  A  part  of  the 
Romans  fled  to  the  deserted  stronghold  of  Veii,  and 
others  to  their  own  city,  but  many  were  overtaken  by 
the  enemy  and  killed,  or  were  swept  away  by  the 
current  of  the  Tiber.* 

*  That  this  was  a  terrible  defeat  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  sixteenth 
of  July  was  afterward  held  unlucky  (ater,  black),  and  no  business  was 
transacted  on  it.  Ovid  mentions  it  as  "  the  day  to  which  calamitous 
Allia  gives  a  name  in  the  calendar,"  and  on  which  "  tearful  Allia  was 
stained  with  the  blood  of  the  Latian  wounds." 


102     A  BLAST  FROM  BEYOND  THE  NORTH-WIND. 

There  was  dire  alarm  in  the  city.  The  young  and 
vigorous  members  of  the  senate,  with  their  wives  and 
children  and  other  citizens,  found  refuge  in  the  capi- 
tol,  which  they  fortified  ;  but  the  aged  senators  took 
their  seats  in  the  forum  and  solemnly  awaited  the 
coming  of  Brennus  and  his  hosts.  The  barbarians 
found,  of  course,  no  difficulty  in  taking  and  burning 
the  city,  and  for  days  they  sacked  and  pillaged  the 
houses.  The  venerable  senators  were  immediately 
murdered,  and  the  invaders  put  the  capitol  in  a  state 
of  siege. 

Then  the  curses  of  the  ambassador  of  Veii  and  of 
Camillus  found  their  fulfilment ;  and  then  also  did  the 
thoughts  of  the  Romans  turn  to  their  once  admired 
commander,  who,  they  were  now  sure,  could  help 
them.  The  refugees  at  Veii,  too,  turned  in  their 
thoughts  to  Camillus,  and  messengers  were  sent 
to  him  at  Ardea,  where  he  was  in  exile,  asking  him 
to  come  to  the  assistance  of  his  distressed  country- 
men. Camillus  was  too  proud  to  accept  a  command 
to  which  he  was  not  called  by  the  senate,  while 
he  was  under  condemnation  for  an  offence  of  which 
he  did  not  feel  guilty.  The  senate  was  shut  up 
in  the  capitol,  and  hard  to  get  at,  but  an  ambitious 
youth  offered  to  climb  the  precipitous  hill,  in  spite 
of  the  besieging  barbarians,  and  obtain  the  requisite 
order.  The  daring  man  crossed  the  Tiber,  and  scaled 
the  hill  by  the  help  of  shrubs  and  projecting  stones. 
After  obtaining  for  Camillus  the  appointment  of  dic- 
tator, he  successfully  returned  to  Veii,  and  then  the 
banished  leader  accepted  the  supreme  office  for  the 
second  time. 


FALLING  DOWN  A  KILL.  103 

The  sharp  watchers  among  the  Gauls  had,  however, 
noticed  in  the  broken  shrubs  and  loosened  stones  the 
marks  of  the  daring  act  of  the  messenger  who  had 
climbed  the  hill,  and  determined  to  take  the  hint  and 
enter  the  capitol  in  that  way  themselves.  In  the 
dead  of  night,  but  by  the  bright  light  of  the  moon  we 
may  suppose,  since  the  battle  of  Allia  was  fought  at 
the  full  of  the  moon,  the  daring  barbarians  began 
slowly  and  with  great  difficulty  to  climb  the  rocky 
hill.  They  actually  reached  its  summit,  and,  to  their 
surprise,  were  not  noisy  enough  to  awaken  the  guards ; 
but,  alas  for  them,  the  sacred  geese  of  the  capi- 
tol, kept  for  use  in  the  worship  of  Juno,  were  con- 
fined near  the  spot  where  the  ascent  had  been  made. 
Alarmed  by  the  unusual  occurrence,  the  geese 
uttered  their  natural  noises  and  awakened  Marcus 
Manlius,  who  quickly  buckled  on  his  armor  and 
rushed  to  the  edge  of  the  cliff.  He  was  just  in  time 
to  meet  the  first  Gaul  as  he  came  up,  and  to  push  him 
over  on  the  others  who  were  painfully  following  him. 
Down  he  fell  backwards,  striking  his  companions 
and  sending  them  one  after  another  to  the  foot  of 
the  precipice  in  promiscuous  ruin.  In  the  morning 
the  captain  of  the  watch  was  in  turn  cast  down  upon 
the  heads  of  the  enemies,  to  whom  his  neglect  had 
given  such  an  advantage. 

Now  there  remained  nothing  for  the  Gauls  to 
do  but  sit  down  and  wait,  to  see  if  they  could  starve 
the  Romans  confined  in  the  capitol.  Months  passed, 
and,  indeed,  they  almost  accomplished  their  object, 
but  while  they  were  listlessly  waiting,  the  hot  Roman 
autumn  was  having  its  natural  effect  upon  them, 


IO4     A  BLAST  FROM  BEYOND  THE  NORTH-WIND. 

accustomed  as  they  were  to  an  active  life  in  those 
Northern  woods  where  the  cool  winds  of  the  moun- 
tains fanned  them  and  the  leafy  shades  screened  their 
heads  from  the  heat  of  the  sun.     The  miasma  of  the 
low  lands  crept  up  into  their  camps,  and  the  ashes  of 
the  ruins  that  they  had  made  blew  into  their  faces  and 
affected  their  health.     They  might  almost  as  well 
have  been  shut  up  on  the  hill.      The  result  was  that 
both  Gaul  and  Roman  felt  at  last  that  peace  would 
be  a  boon  no  matter  at  how  high  a  price  purchased, 
and  it  was  agreed  by  Brennus  that  if  the  Romans 
would  weigh  him  out  a  thousand  pounds  of   rich 
gold,  he   would   take  himself  and  his  horde   back 
to  the  more  comfortable  woods.     The  scales  were 
prepared  and  the  gold  was  brought  out,  but  the  Ro- 
mans found  that  their  enemies  were  cheating  in  the 
weight.     When  asked  what  it  meant,  Brennus  pulled 
off  his  heavy  sword,  threw  it  into  the  balances  and 
said :    "  What  does  it  mean,  but  woe  to  the  van- 
quished ! "    "  Vat  victis  !  " 

It  was  very  bad  for  the  Romans,  but  the  story 
goes  on  to  tell  us  that  at  that  very  moment,  the 
great  Camillus  was  knocking  at  the  gates,  that  he  en- 
tered at  the  right  instant  with  his  army,  took  the 
gold  out  of  the  scales,  threw  the  weights,  and  the 
scales  themselves,  indeed,  to  the  Gauls,  and  told 
Brennus  that  it  was  the  custom  of  the  Romans  to 
pay  their  debts  in  iron,  not  in  gold.  The  Gauls  im- 
mediately called  their  men  together  and  hastened 
from  the  city,  establishing  a  camp  eight  miles  away 
on  the  road  to  Gabii,  where  CamiHus  overtook  them 
the  next  day  and  defeated  them  with  such  great 


106     A   BLAST  FROM  BEYOND  THE  NORTH-WIND. 

slaughter  that  they  were  able  to  do  no  further 
damage. 

It  seems  a  pity  to  spoil  so  good  a  story,  but  it  is 
like  many  others  that  have  grown  up  in  the  way 
that  reminds  one  of  the  game  of  "  scandal  "  that  the 
children  play.  The  Roman  historians  always  wished 
to  glorify  their  nation,  and  they  took  every  oppor- 
tunity to  make  the  stories  appear  well  for  the  old 
heroes.  It  seems  that  at  this  time  some  Gauls  were 
really  cut  off  by  the  people  of  Caere,  or  some  neigh- 
boring place,  and,  to  improve  the  story,  it  was  at 
first  said  that  they  were  the  very  ones  that  had 
taken  Rome.  Then,  another  writer  added,  that  the 
gold  given  as  a  ransom  for  the  city  was  retaken  with 
the  captives ;  and,  as  another  improvement,  it  was 
said  that  Camillus  was  the  one  who  accomplished 
the  feat,  but  that  it  was  a  long  time  afterwards, 
when  the  Gauls  were  besieging  another  city.  The 
last  step  in  adding  to  the  story  was  taken  when 
some  one,  thinking  that  it  could  be  improved  still 
more,  and  the  national  pride  satisfied,  brought 
Camillus  into  the  city  at  the  very  moment  that  the 
gold  was  in  the  scales,  so  that  he  could  keep  it  from 
being  delivered  at  all,  and  then  proceed  to  cut  off  all 
the  enemy,  so  that  not  a  man  should  be  left  to  take 
the  terrible  tale  back  over  the  northern  mountains  ! 
The  story  is  not  all  false,  for  there  are  good  eviden- 
ces that  Rome  was  burned,  but  the  heroic  embellish- 
ments are  doubtless  the  imaginative  and  patriotic 
additions  of  historians  who  thought  more  of  national 
pride  than  historic  accuracy. 

Camillus  now  proceeded  to  rebuild  the  city,  and 


PATCHING  UP  RUINS.  107 

came  to  be  honored  as  the  second  founder  of  Rome. 
The  suffering  people  rushed  out  of  the  capitol  weep- 
ing for  very  joy  ;  the  inhabitants  who  had  gone  else- 
where came  back;  the  priests  brought  the  holy 
things  from  their  hiding  places ;  the  city  was  puri- 
fied ;  a  temple  was  speedily  erected  to  Rumor  or 
Voice  on  the  spot  where  Caedicius  had  heard  the 
voice  announcing  the  coming  barbarians  ;  and  there 
was  a  diligent  digging  among  the  ashes  to  find  the 
sites  of  the  other  temples  and  streets.  It  was  a 
tedious  and  almost  hopeless  task  to  rebuild  the 
broken-down  city,  and  the  people  began  to  look 
with  longing  to  the  strongly-built  houses  and 
temples  still  standing  at  Veii,  wondering  why  they 
might  not  go  thither  in  a  body  and  live  in  comfort, 
instead  of  digging  among  ashes  to  rebuild  a  city 
simply  to  give  Camillus,  of  whom  they  quickly  began 
to  be  jealous,  the  honor  that  had  been  an  attribute 
of  Romulus  only.  Then  the  senate  appealed  to  the 
memories  of  the  olden  time  ;  the  stories  of  the  sacred 
places,  and  especially  of  the  head  that  was  found  on 
the  Capitoline  Hill,  were  retold,  and  by  dint  of  en- 
treaty and  expostulation  the  distressed  inhabitants 
were  led  to  go  to  work  to  patch  up  the  ruins.  They 
brought  stones  from  Veii,  and  to  the  poor  the 
authorities  granted  bricks,  and  gradually  a  new,  but 
ill-built,  city  grew  up  among  the  ruins,  with  crooked 
streets  and  lanes,  and  with  buildings,  public  and 
private,  huddled  together  just  as  happened  to  be  the 
most  convenient  for  the  immediate  occasion. 

Camillus  lived  twenty-five  years  longer,  and  was 
repeatedly  called  to  the  head  of  affairs,  as  the  city 


108     A   BLAST  FROM  BEYOND  THE  NORTH-WIND, 

found  itself  in  danger  from  the  Volscians,  JEquians, 
Etruscans  and  other  envious  enemies.  Six  times 
was  he  made  one  of  the  tribunes,  and  five  times  did 
he  hold  the  office  of  dictator.  When  the  Gauls  came 
again,  in  the  year  367,  Camillus  was  called  upon  to 
help  his  countrymen  for  the  last  time,  and  though  he 
was  some  fourscore  years  of  age,  he  did  not  hesitate, 
nor  did  victory  desert  him.  The  Gauls  were  de- 
feated with  great  slaughter,  and  it  was  a  long  time 
before  they  again  ventured  to  trouble  the  Romans. 
The  second  founder  of  Rome,  after  his  long  life  of 
warfare,  died  of  a  plague  that  carried  away  many  of 
the  prominent  citizens  in  the  year  365.  His  victories 
had  not  all  been  of  the  same  warlike  sort,  however. 
"  Peace  hath  her  victories  no  less  renowned  than 
war,"  and  Camillus  gained  his  share  of  them. 

Marcus  Manlius,  the  preserver  of  the  capitol,  was 
less  fortunate,  for  when  he  saw  that  the  plebeians 
were  suffering  because  the  laws  concerning  debtors 
were  too  severe,  and  came  forward  as  patron  of  the 
poor,  he  received  no  recognition,  and  languished  in  pri- 
vate life,  while  Camillus  was  a  favorite.  He  there- 
fore turned  to  the  plebeians,  and  devoted  his  large 
fortune  to  relieving  suffering  debtors.  The  patricians 
looking  upon  him  as  a  deserter  from  their  party, 
brought  up  charges  against  him,  and  though  he 
showed  the  marks  of  distinction  that  he  had  won  in 
battles  for  the  country,  and  gained  temporary  respite 
from  their  emnity,  they  did  not  relent  until  his 
condemnation  had  been  secured.  He  was  hurled 
from  the  fatal  Tarpeian  Rock,  and  his  house  was 
razed  to  the  ground  in  the  year  384. 


PEACE  BETWEEN   THE  ORDERS.  IOO, 

Eight  years  after  the  death  of  Manlius  (B.C.  376), 
two  tribunes  of  the  plebeians,  one  of  whom  was  Caius 
Licinius  Stolo,  proposed  some  new  laws  to  protect 
poor  debtors,  whose  grievances  had  been  greatly  in- 
creased by  the  havoc  of  the  Gauls,  and  after  nine 
more  years  of  tedious  discussion  and  effort,  they 
were  enacted  (B.C.  367),  and  are  known  as  the  Licin- 
ian  Laws,  or  rather,  Rogations,  for  a  law  before  it 
was  finally  passed  was  known  as  a  rogation,  and 
these  were  long  discussed  before  they  were  agreed 
to.  (Rogare,  to  ask,  that  is,  to  ask  the  opinion  of 
one.)  So  great  was  the  feeling  aroused  by  this  dis- 
cussion, that  Camillus  was  called  upon  to  interfere, 
and  he  succeeded  in  pacifying  the  city  ;  Lucius  Sex- 
tius  was  chosen  as  the  first  plebeian  consul,  and  Camil- 
lus, having  thus  a  third  time  saved  the  state,  dedi, 
cated  a  temple  to  Concord.  As  a  plebeian  had  been 
made  consul,  the  disturbing  struggles  between  the 
two  orders  could  not  last  much  longer,  and  we  find 
that  the  plebeians  gradually  gained  ground,  until  at 
last  the  political  distinction  between  them  and  the 
patricians  was  wiped  out  for  generations.  The  laws 
that  finally  effected  this  were  those  of  Publilius,  in 
339,  and  of  Hortensius,  the  dictator,  in  286. 

The  period  of  the  death  of  Camillus  is  to  be  re- 
membered on  account  of  several  facts  connected 
with  a  plague  that  visited  Rome  in  the  year  365. 
The  people,  in  their  despair,  for  the  third  time  in  the 
history  of  the  city,  performed  a  peculiar  sacrifice 
called  the  Lectisternium  (lectus,  a  couch,  sternere,  to 
spread),  to  implore  the  favor  of  offended  deities. 
They  placed  images  of  the  gods  upon  cushions  or 


110     A  BLAST  FROM  BEYOND  THE  NORTH-WIND. 

couches  and  offered  them  viands,  as  if  the  images 
could  really  eat  them.  Naturally  this  did  not  effect 
any  abatement  of  the  ravaging  disease,  and  under 
orders  of  the  priests,  stage  plays  were  instituted  as  a 
means  of  appeasing  the  wrath  of  heaven.  •  The  first 
Roman  play-writer,  Plautus,  did  not  live  till  a  hun- 
dred years  after  this  time,  and  these  performances 
were  trivial  imitations  of  Etruscan  acting,  which  thus 
came  to  Rome  at  second-hand  from  Greece ;  but,  as 
the  Romans  did  not  particularly  delight  in  intel- 
lectual efforts  at  that  time,  buffoonery  sufficed  in- 
stead of  the  wit  which  gave  so  much  pleasure  to  the 
Cultivated  attendants  at  the  theatre  of  Athens. 
Livy  says  that  these  plays  neither  relieved  the  minds 
nor  the  bodies  of  the  Romans;  and,  in  fact,  when  on 
one  occasion  the  performances  were  interrupted  by 
the  overflowing  waters  of  the  Tiber  which  burst  into 
the  circus,  the  people  turned  from  the  theatre  in 
terror,  feeling  that  their  efforts  to  soothe  the  gods 
had  been  despised.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the 
earth  is  said  to  have  been  opened  in  the  forum  by  an 
earthquake,  and  that  Curtius  cast  himself  into  it  as 
a  sacrifice ;  but,  as  we  have  read  of  the  occurrence 
before  we  shall  not  stop  to  consider  it  again.  The 
young  hero  was  called  Mettus  Curtius  in  the  former 
instance,  but  now  the  name  given  to  him  is  Marcus 
Curtius. 


IX. 

HOW  THE  REPUBLIC  OVERCAME  ITS  NEIGHBORS. 

WE  have  now  reached  the  time  when  Rome  had 
brought  under  her  sway  all  the  country  towards 
Naples  as  far  as  the  river  Liris,  and,  gaining  strength, 
she  is  about  to  add  materially  to  her  territory  and  to 
lay  the  foundation  for  still  more  extensive  conquests. 
During  the  century  that  we  are  next  to  consider,  she 
conquered  her  immediate  neighbors,  and  was  first 
noticed  by  that  powerful  city  which  was  soon  to  be- 
come her  determined  antagonist,  Carthage.  It  was 
the  time  when  the  great  Macedonian  conqueror, 
Alexander,  finished  his  war  in  Persia,  and  the  men- 
tion of  his  name  leads  Livy  to  pause  in  his  narrative, 
and,  reflecting  that  the  age  was  remarkable  above 
others  for  its  conquerors,  to  enquire  what  would 
have  been  the  consequences  if  Alexander  had  been 
•minded  to  turn  his  legions  against  Rome,  after 
having  become  master  of  the  Eastern  world.  Alex- 
ander died,  however,  before  he  had  an  opportunity 
to  get  back  from  the  East ;  but,  as  the  old  historian 
says,  it  is  entertaining  and  relaxing  to  the  mind  to 
digress  from  weightier  considerations  and  to  em- 
bellish historical  study  with  variety,  and  he  decides 
that  if  the  great  Eastern  conqueror  had  marched 


112     Th3  REPUBLIC  OVERCOMES  ITS  NEIGHBORS. 

against  Rome,  he  would  have  been  defeated.    While 
Livy  was  probably  influenced  in  this  decision  by  that 
desire  to  magnify  the  prowess  of  his  country  which 
is  plainly  seen  throughout  his  work,  we  may  agree 
with  him  without  fear  of  being   far  from  correct, 
especially     when     we    remember    that     Alexander 
achieved  his  great  success  against  peoples  that  had 
not  reached  the  stage  of  military  science  that  Rome 
had  by  this  time  attained.  "  The  aspect  of  Italy,"  Livy 
says,  "  would  have  appeared  to  him  quite  different 
from  that  of  India,  which  he  traversed  in  the  guise  of 
a  reveller  at  the  head  of  a  crew  of  drunkards   *   *   * 
Never  were  we  worsted  by  an  .enemy's  cavalry,  never 
by  their  infantry,  never  in  open  fight,  never  on  equal 
ground,"  but  our  army  "  has  defeated  and  will  de- 
feat a  thousand  armies  more  formidable  than  those 
of  Alexander  and  the  Macedonians,  provided  that 
the  same  love  of  peace' and  solicitude  about  domestic 
harmony  in  which  we  now  live  continue  permanent." 
This  is  what  patriotism  says  for  Rome,  and  we  can 
hardly  say  less,  when  we  remember  that  when  she 
came  into  conflict  with  great  Carthage,  led  by  diplo- 
matic and  scientific  Hannibal,  she  proved  the  victor. 
We  are,  however,  more  interested  now  in  what  the 
Roman  arms  actually  accomplished  than  in  enquiries, 
however  interesting,  about  whatthey  might  have  done. 
They  subjugated  the  world,  and  that  is  enough  for  us. 
One  of  the  most  favored  and  celebrated  families  in 
the  history  of  Rome  for  a  thousand  years  was  that 
called   Valerian,   and    at    the    time    to   which    our 
thoughts   are   now   directed,  one   of   the   members 
comes  into  prominence  as  the  most  illustrious  gen- 


THE  MAN  WITH  THE  CHAIN.       11$ 

eral  of  the  era.  Marcus  Valerius  Corvus  was  born 
at  about  the  time  when  the  rogations  of  Licinius 
Stolo  became  laws,  and  in  early  life  distinguished 
himself  as  a  soldier  in  an  assault  made  on  the  Ro- 
mans by  the  Gauls,  who  seem  not  to  have  all  been 
swept  away  for  a  long  time.  It  was  in  the  year  349. 
The  dreaded  enemy  rushed  upon  Rome,  and  the 
citizens  took  up  arms  in  a  mass.  One  soldier,  Titus 
Manlius,  met  a  gigantic  Gaul  on  a  bridge  over  the 
Anio,  and  after  slaying  him,  carried  off  a  massy 
chain  that  he  bore  on  his  neck.  Torquatus  in  Latin 
means  "  provided  with  a  chain,"  and  this  word  was 
added  to  the  name  of  Manlius  ever  after.  It  was  at 
the  same  time  that  Marcus  Valerius  encountered 
another  huge  Gaul  in  single  combat,  and  overcame 
him,  though  he  was  aided  by  a  raven  which  settled 
on  his  helmet,  and  in  the  contest  picked  at  the  eyes 
of  the  barbarian.  Corvus  is  the  Latin  word  for 
raven,  and  it  was  added  to  the  other  names  of  Va- 
lerius. A  golden  crown  and  ten  oxen  were  presented 
to  him,  and  the  people  chose  him  consul. 

Corvus  was  no  less  powerful  than  popular.  He 
competed  with  the  other  soldiers  in  their  games  of 
the  camp,  and  listened  to  their  jokes  like  a  com- 
panion without  taking  offence.  He  thus  established 
a  bond  between  the  two  orders.  Six  times  he  served 
as  consul,  and  twice  as  dictator.  Never  was  such 
a  man  more  needed  than  was  he  now.  At  an  un- 
known period  there  had  come  down  from  the  snowy 
tops  of  the  Apennines  a  strong  people,  known  after- 
wards as  Samnites,  who  now  began  to  press  upon 
the  inhabitants  of  the  region  called  Campania,  in  the 


114     THE  REPUBLIC  OVERCOMES  ITS  NEIGHBORS. 

midst  of  which  is  the  volcano  Vesuvius.*  There,  too, 
were  Cumae  and  Capua,  of  which  we  have  had  occa- 
sion to  speak,  and  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii ;  there 
was  Naples  on  its  beautiful  bay,  and  there  was  Palae- 
opolis,  the  "  old  city,"  not  far  distant  (Nea,  new,  polls, 
city ;  palalos,  old,  polls,  city).  This  was  a  part  of 
Magna  Grascia,  which  included  many  rich  cities  in 
the  southern  portion  of  the  peninsula,  among  which 
were  Tarentum,  and  there  had  been  the  earliest  of  the 
Greek  colonies,  Sybaris,  the  abode  of  wealth  and 
luxury,  until  its  destruction  at  the  time  of  the  fall 
of  the  Tarquins. 

The  Campanians  invoked  the  help  of  Rome  against 
their  sturdy  foes,  and  a  struggle  for  the  mastery  of 
Italy  began,  which  lasted  for  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury, though  there  were  three  wars,  separated  by 
intervals  of  peace.  The  first  struggle  lasted  from 
343  to  341,  and  is  important  for  its  first  battle,  which 
was  fought  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Gaurus,  three  miles 
from  Cumae.  It  is  memorable  because  Valerius  Cor- 
vus,  who  lived  until  the  Samnites  had  been  finally 
subdued,  was  victorious,  and  the  historian  Niebuhr 
tells  us  that  though  we  find  it  but  little  spoken  of,  it 
is  one  of  the  most  noteworthy  in  all  the  history 

*  Among  the  strange  customs  of  the  olden  times  in  Italy  was  one 
called  ver  sacrum  (sacred  spring).  In  time  of  distress  a  vow  would  be 
made  to  sacrifice  every  creature  born  in  April  and  May  to  propitiate 
an  offended  deity.  In  many  cases  man  and  beast  were  thus  offered  ; 
but  in  time  humanity  revolted  against  the  sacrifice  of  children,  and 
they  were  considered  sacred,  but  allowed  to  grow  up,  and  at  the  age  of 
twenty  were  sent  blindfolded  out  into  the  world  beyond  the  frontier 
to  found  a  colony  wherever  the  gods  might  lead  them.  The  Mamer- 
tines  in  Sicily  sprang  from  such  emigrants,  and  it  is  supposed  that  the 
Samnites  had  a  similar  origin. 


A  BATTLE  AT   VESUVIUS.  115 

of  the  world,  because  it  indicated  that  Rome  was  to 
achieve  the  final  success,  and  thus  take  its  first  step 
towards  universal  sovereignty.  After  this  victory 
the  Carthaginians,  with  whom  Rome  was  to  have  a 
desperate  war  afterwards,  sent  congratulations,  ac- 
companied by  a  golden  crown  for  the  shrine  of 
Jupiter  in  the  capitol.  It  is  said  that  at  the  time  of 
the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins,  the  Romans  and  Car- 
thaginians had  entered  into  a  treaty  of  friendship, 
which  had  been  renewed  five  years  before  the  war 
with  the  Samnites,but  we  are  not  certain  of  it. 

The  results  of  the  burning  of  Rome  by  the  Gauls 
had  not  all  ceased  to  be  felt,  and  many  of  the  ple- 
beians were  still  suffering  under  the  burden  of  debts 
that  they  could  not  pay.  A  portion  of  the  army, 
composed,  as  we  know,  of  plebeians,  was  left  to 
winter  at  Capua.  There  it  saw  the  luxurious  ex- 
travagance of  the  citizens,  and  felt  its  own  burdens 
more  than  ever  by  contrast.  A  mutiny  ensued,  and 
though  it  was  quelled,  more  concessions  were  made 
to  the  plebeians,  and  their  debts  were  generally 
abolished.  Meantime  the  Latins  saw  evidence  that 
the  power  of  Rome  was  growing  more  rapidly  than 
their  own,  and  they,  therefore,  determined  to  go  to 
war  to  obtain  the  equality  that  they  thought  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  between  the  nations  authorized 
them  to  expect.  The  Samnites  were  now  the  allies 
of  Rome,  and  fought  with  her.  The  armies  met 
under  the  shadow  of  Mount  Vesuvius.  In  a  vision, 
so  the  story  runs,  it  had  been  foretold  to  the  Romans 
that  the  leader  of  one  army  and  the  soldiers  of  the 
other  were  forfeited  to  the  gods  ;  and  when,  during 


Il6     THE  REPUBLIC  OVERCOMES  ITS  NEIGHBORS, 

the  battle,  the  plebeian  consul,  Marcus  Decius  Mus, 
who  had  been  a  hero  in  the  previous  war,  saw  that 
his  line  was  falling  back,  he  uttered  a  solemn  prayer 
and  threw  himself  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  By 
thus  giving  up  his  life,  as  the  partial  historians  like 
to  tell  us  that  many  Romans  have  done  at  various 
epochs,  he  ensured  victory  on  this  occasion,  and  sub- 
sequently the  conquest  of  the  world,  to  his  country- 
men. Other  battles  and  other  victories  followed, 
and  the  people  of  Latium  became  dependent  upon 
Rome.  The  last  engagement  was  at  Antium,  an 
ancient  city  on  a  promontory  below  Ostia,  which, 
having  a  little  navy,  had  interfered  with  the  Roman 
commerce.  The  prows  of  the  vessels  of  Antium 
were  set  up  in  the  Roman  forum  as  an  ornament  to 
the  suggestum,  or  stage  from  which  orators  addressed 
the  people.  This  was  called  the  rostra  afterward. 
(Rostra,  beaks  of  birds  or  ships.) 

Thus  the  city  kept  on  adding  to  its  dependents, 
and  increasing  its  power.  In  329,  the  Volscians 
were  overcome  and  their  long  warfare  with  Rome 
ended.  Two  years  later,  the  Romans  declared  war 
against  Palaeopolis  and  Neapolis,  and  after  taking 
the  Old  City,  made  a  league  with  the  New.  One 
war  thus  led  to  another,  and  as  the  Samnites,  getting 
jealous  of  the  increasing  power  of  their  ally,  had 
aided  these  two  cities,  Rome  declared  war  the  sec- 
ond time  against  them,  in  326.  It  proved  the  most 
important  of  the  three  Samnite  wars,  lasting  upward 
of  twenty  years.  The  aim  of  each  of  the  combatants 
seems  to  have  been  to  gain  as  many  allies  as  possi- 
ble, and  to  lessen  the  adherents  of  the  enemy.  For 


THE  CAUDINE  FORKS.  117 

this  reason  the  war  was  peculiar,  the  armies  of  Rome 
being  often  found  in  Apulia,  and  those  of  the  enemy 
being  ever  ready  to  overrun  Campania. 

Success  at  first  followed  the  Samnite  banners,  and 
this  was  notably  the  case  at  the  battle  of  Caudine 
Forks,  fought  in  a  pass  on  the  road  from  Capua  to 
Beneventum  (then  Maleventum),  in  the  year  321, 
when  the  Romans  were  entrapped  and  all  obliged  to 
pass  under  the  yoke.  Such  a  success  is  apt  to  in- 
fluence allies,  and  this  tended  to  strengthen  the 
Samnites.  It  was  not  until  seven  years  had  passed 
that  the  Romans  were  able  to  make  decided  gains, 
and  though  their  cause  appeared  quite  hopeful,  the 
very  success  brought  new  troubles,  because  it  led  the 
Etruscans  to  take  part  with  the  Samnites  and  to 
create  a  diversion  on  the  north.  This  outbreak  is 
said  to  have  been  quelled  by  Fabius  Maximus  Rullus, 
(a  general  whose  personal  prowess  is  vaunted  in  the 
highest  terms  by  the  historians  of  Rome,)  who  de- 
feated the  Etruscans  at  Lake  Vadimonis,  B.C.  310. 
Success  followed  in  the  south,  also,  and  in  the  year 
304,  Bovianum,  in  the  heart  of  Samnium,  which  had 
been  before  taken  by  them,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Romans  and  closed  the  war,  leaving  Rome  the  most 
powerful  nation  in  Central  Italy. 

Unable  to  overcome  its  northern  neighbor,  Sam- 
nium now  turned  to  attack  Lucania,  the  country  to 
the  south,  which  reached  as  far  as  the  Tarentine 
Gulf,  just  under  the  great  heel  of  Italy.  Magna 
Graecia  was  then  in  a  state  of  decadence,  and  Luca- 
nia was  an  ally  of  Rome,  which  took  its  part  against 
Samnium,  not  as  loving  Samnium  less,  but  as  loving 


I  18     THE  REPUBLIC  OVERCOMES  ITS  NEIGHBORS. 

power  more.  The  struggle  became  very  general. 
The  Etruscans  had  begun  a  new  war  with  Rome,  but 
were  about  to  treat  for  peace,  when  the  Samnites 
induced  them  to  break  off  the  negotiations,  and 
they  attacked  Rome  at  once  on  the  north  and  the 
south.  The  undaunted  Romans  struck  out  with 
one  arm  against  the  Etruscans  and  their  allies  the 
Gauls  on  the  north,  and  with  the  other  hurled  defi- 
ance at  the  Samnites  on  the  south.  The  war  was 
decided  by  a  battle  fought  in  295,  on  the  ridge  of 
the  Apennines,  near  the  town  of  Sentinum  in 
Umbria,  where  the  allies  had  all  managed  to  unite 
their  forces.  On  this  occasion  it  is  related  that 
Publius  Decius  Mus,  son  of  that  hero  who  had  sacri- 
ficed himself  at  Mount  Vesuvius,  followed  his  father's 
example,  devoted  himself  and  the  opposing  army  to 
the  infernal  gods,  and  thus  enabled  the  Romans  to 
achieve  a  splendid  victory. 

The  Samnites  continued  the  desperate  struggle 
five  years  longer,  but  in  the  year  290  they  became 
subject  to  Rome ;  their  leader,  the  hero  of  the  bat- 
tle of  the  Caudine  Forks,  having  been  taken  two  years 
previously  and  perfidiously  put  to  death  in  Rome  as 
the  triumphal  car  of  the  victor  ascended  the  Capito- 
line  Hill.  This  is  considered  one  of  the  darkest 
blots  on  the  Roman  name,  and  Dr.  Arnold  forcibly 
says  that  it  shows  that  in  their  dealings  with  for- 
eigners, the  Romans  "  had  neither  magnanimity, 
nor  humanity,  nor  justice." 

The  Etruscans  and  the  Gauls  did  not  yet  cease  their 
wars  on  the  north,  and  in  283  they  encountered  the 
Roman  army  at  the  little  pond,  between  the  Cimin- 


THE    VADIMONIAN  POND.  1 19 

ian  Hills  and  the  Tiber,  known  as  Lake  Vadimonis, 
on  the  spot  where  the  Etrurian  power  had  been 
broken  thirty  years  before  by  Fabius  Maximus,  and 
were  defeated  with  great  slaughter.  The  constant 
wars  had  made  the  rich  richer  than  before,  while  at 
the  same  time  the  poor  were  growing  poorer,  and 
after  the  third  Samnite  war  we  are  ready  to  believe 
that  debts  were  again  pressing  with  heavy  force 
upon  many  of  the  citizens.  Popular  tumults  arose, 
and  the  usual  remedy,  an  agrarian  law,  was  proposed. 
There  was  a  new  secession  of  the  people  to  the 
Janiculum,  followed  by  the  enactment  of  the  Hor- 
tensian  laws,  celebrated  in  the  history  of  jurispru- 
dence because  they  deprived  the  senate  of  its  veto 
and  declared  that  the  voice  of  the  people  assembled 
in  their  tribes  was  supreme  law.  Debts  were  abol- 
ished or  greatly  reduced,  and  seven  jugera  of  land 
were  allotted  to  every  citizen.  We  see  from  this 
that  the  commotions  of  our  own  days,  made  by  so- 
cialists, communists,  and  nihilists,  as  they  are  called, 
are  only  repetitions  of  such  agitations  as  those  which 
took  place  so  many  centuries  ago. 

In  the  midst  of  a  storm  in  the  especially  boister- 
ous winter  season  of  the  year  280,  the  waves  of  the 
Mediterranean  washed  upon  the  shores  of  Southern 
Italy  a  brave  man  more  dead  than  alive,  who  was  to 
take  the  lead  in  the  last  struggle  against  the  su- 
premacy of  Rome  among  its  neighbors.  The  winds 
and  the  waves  had  no  respect  for  his  crown.  They 
knew  not  that  he  ruled  over  a  strong  people  whose 
extensive  mountainous  land  was  known  as  the  "  con- 
tinent," and  that  he  had  left  it  with  thousands  of 


120     THE  REPUBLIC  OVERCOMES  ITS  NEIGHBORS. 

archers  and  slingers  and  footmen  and  knights  ;  and 
that  he  had  also  huge  elephants  trained  to  war, 
beasts  then  unknown  in  Italian  warfare,  which  he  ex- 
pected would  strike  horror  into  the  cavalry  of  the 
country  he  had  been  cast  upon. 

As  we  study  history,  we  find  that  at  almost  every 
epoch  it  centres  about  the  personality  of  some 
strong  man  who  has  either  power  to  control,  or  sym- 
pathetic attractiveness  that  holds  to  him  those  who 
are  around  him.  It  was  so  in  this  case.  Pyrrhus, 
King  of  Epirus,  was  born  seven  years  after  the  great 
Alexander  died,  and  was  at  this  time  thirty-seven 
years  of  age.  Claiming  descent  from  Pyhrrus,  son  of 
Achilles,  and  being  a  son  of  ^Eacides,  he  was  in  the  di- 
rect line  the  Kings  of  Epirus.  He  was  also  cousin 
of  an  Alexander,  who,  in  the  year  332,  had  crossed 
over  from  Epirus  to  help  the  Tarentines  against 
the  Lucanians,  had  formed  an  alliance  with  the 
Romans,  and  had  finally  been  killed  by  a  Lucan- 
ian  on  the  banks  of  the  Acheron,  in  326.  After 
a  variety  of  vicissitudes,  Pyrrhus  had  ascended  the 
throne  of  his  father  at  the  age  of  twenty-three, 
and,  taking  Alexander  the  Great  as  his  model,  had 
soon  become  popular  and  powerful.  Aiming  at 
the  conquest  of  the  whole  of  Greece,  he  attacked 
the  king  of  Macedonia  and  overcame  him.  After 
resting  a  while  upon  his  laurels,  he  found  a  life 
of  inactivity  unbearable,  and  accepted  a  request, 
sent  him  in  281,  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  his 
cousin  Alexander,  and  go  to  the  help  of  the  people 
of  Tarentum  against  the  Romans,  with  whom  they 
were  then  at  war.  This  is  the  reason  why  he  was  voya- 


AN  UNANSWERED  QUESTION.  121 

ging  in  haste  to  Italy,  and  it  was  this  ambition  that 
led  to  his  shipwreck  on  a  winter's  night. 

Pyrrhus  had  a  counsellor  named  Cineas,  who 
asked  him  how  he  would  use  his  victory  if  he  should 
be  so  fortunate  as  to  overcome  the  Romans,  who 
were  reputed  great  warriors  and  conquerors  of  many 
peoples.  The  Romans  overcome,  replied  the  king, 
no  city,  Greek  nor  barbarian,  would  dare  to  oppose 
me,  and  I  should  be  master  of  all  Italy.  Well,  Italy 
conquered,  what  next  ?  Sicily  next  would  hold  out 
its  arms  to  receive  me,  Pyrrhus  replied.  And,  what 
next  ?  These  would  be  but  forerunners  of  greater 
victories.  There  are  Libya  and  Carthage,  said  the 
king.  Then  ?  Then,  continued  Pyrrhus,  I  should 
be  able  to  master  all  Greece.  And  then  ?  continued 
Cineas.  Then  I  would  live  at  ease,  eat  and  drink  all 
day,  and  enjoy  pleasant  conversation.  And  what 
hinders  you  from  taking  now  the  ease  that  you  are 
planning  to  take  after  such  hazards  and  so  much 
blood-shedding  ?  Here  the  conversation  closed,  for 
Pyrrhus  could  not  answer  this  question. 

Once  on  the  Italian  shore  the  invading  king 
marched  to  Tarentum,  and  found  it  a  city  of  people 
given  up  to  pleasures,  who  had  no  thought  of  fight- 
ing themselves,  but  expected  that  he  would  do  that 
work  for  them  while  they  enjoyed  their  theatres, 
their  baths,  and  their  festivities.  They  soon  found, 
however,  that  they  had  a  master  instead  of  a  servant. 
Pyrrhus  shut  up  the  theatres  and  was  inflexible  in 
demanding  the  services  of  the  young  and  strong  in 
the  army.  His  preparations  were  made  as  promptly 
as  possible,  but  Rome  was  ahead  of  him,  and  her 


122     THE  REPUBLIC  OVERCOMES  ITS  NEIGHBORS. 

army  was  superior,  excepting  that  the  Grecians 
brought  elephants  with  them.  The  first  battle  was 
fought  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Liris,  and  the 
elephants  gave  victory  to  the  invader,  but  the  valor 
of  the  Romans  was  such  that  Pyrrhus  is  said  to  have 
boasted  that  if  he  had  such  soldiers  he  could  conquer 
the  world,  and  to  have  confessed  that  another  such 
victory  would  send  him  back  to  Epirus  alone.  It  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at,  therefore,  that  he  sent  Cineas 
to  Rome  to  plead  for  peace.  The  Romans  were  on 
the  point  of  entering  into  negotiations,  when  aged 
and  blind  Appius  Claudius,  hearing  of  it,  caused 
himself  to  be  carried  to  the  forum,  where  he  deliv- 
ered an  impassioned  protest  against  the  proposed 
action.  So  effectual  was  he  that  the  people  became 
eager  for  war,  and  sent  word  to  Pyrrhus  that  they 
would  only  treat  with  him  when  he  should  withdraw 
his  forces  from  Italy.  Pyrrhus  then  marched  rapidly 
towards  Rome,  but  when  he  had  almost  reached  the 
city,  after  devastating  the  country  through  which  he 
had  passed,  he  learned  that  the  Romans  had  made 
peace  with  the  Etruscans,  with  whom  they  had 
been  fighting,  and  that  thus  another  army  was  free  to 
act  against  him.  He  therefore  retreated  to  winter 
quarters  at  Tarentum.  The  next  year  the  two 
forces  met  on  the  edge  of  the  plains  of  Apulia,  at 
Asculum,  but  the  battle  resulted  in  no  gain  to 
Pyrrhus,  who  was  again  obliged  to  retire  for  the 
winter  to  Tarentum.  (B.C.  279.) 

In  the  last  battle  the  brunt  of  the  fighting  had 
fallen  to  the  share  of  the  Epirots,  and  Pyrrhus  was 
not  anxious  to  sacrifice  his  comparatively  few  re- 


THE  CAREER  OF  PYRRHUS  CLOSED.         123 

maining  troops  for  the  benefit  of  the  Tarentines. 
Therefore,  after  arranging  a  truce  with  Rome,  he 
accepted  an  invitation  from  the  Greeks  of  Sicily  to 
go  to  their  help  against  the  Carthaginians.  For  two 
years  he  fought,  at  first  with  success ;  but  afterwards 
he  met  repulses,  so  that  being  again  asked  to  assist 
his  former  allies  in  Italy,  he  returned,  in  276,  and  for 
two  years  led  the  remnants  of  his  troops  and  the 
mercenaries  that  he  had  attracted  to  his  standard 
against  the  Romans.  His  Italian  career  closed  in 
the  year  274,  when  he  encountered  his  enemy  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Maleventum,  and  was  defeated,  the 
Romans  having  learned  how  to  meet  the  formerly 
dreaded  elephants.  The  name  of  this  place  was  then 
changed  to  Beneventum.  Two  years  later  still,  in 
272,  Tarentum  fell  under  the  sway  of  Rome,  which 
soon  had  overcome  every  nation  on  the  peninsula 
south  of  a  line  marked  by  the  Rubicon  on  the  east 
and  the  Macra  on  the  west, — the  boundaries  of  Gallia 
Cisalpina.  (Cis,  on  this  side,  alpina,  alpine.) 

Not  only  had  Rome  thus  gained  power  and  pres- 
tige at  home,  but  she  had  begun  to  come  in  contact 
with  more  distant  peoples.  Carthage  had  offered  to 
assist  her  after  the  battle  of  Asculum,  sending  a  large 
'fleet  of  ships  to  Ostia  in  earnest  of  her  good  faith. 
Now,  when  the  news  of  the  permanent  repulse  of  the 
proud  king  of  Epirus  was  spread  abroad,  great 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  the  Egyptian  patron  of  art, 
literature,  and  science,  sent  an  embassy  empowered 
to  conclude  a  treaty  of  amity  with  the  republic. 
The  proposition  was  accepted  with  earnestness, 
and  ambassadors  of  the  highest  rank  were  sent  to 


124     THE  REPUBLIC  OVERCOMES  ITS  NEIGHBORS. 

Alexandria,  where  they  were  treated  with  extraordi- 
nary consideration,  and  allowed  to  see  all  the  splen- 
dor of  the  Egyptian  capital. 

Rome  had  now  reached  a  position  of  wealth  and 
physical  prosperity  ;  the  rich  had  gained  much  land, 
and  the  poor  had  been  permitted  to  share  the  gen- 
eral progress ;  commerce,  agriculture,  and,  to  some 
extent,  manufactures  had  advanced.  Rome  kept  a 
firm  hold  upon  all  of  the  territory  she  had  won,  con- 
necting them  with  the  capital  by  good  roads,  but 
making  no  arrangements  for  free  communication  be- 
tween the  chief  cities  of  the  conquered  regions.  The 
celebrated  military  roads,  of  which  we  now  can  see 
the  wonderful  remains,  date  from  a  later  period,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Appian  Way,  which  was  begun 
in  312,  and,  after  the  conquest  of  Italy  was  com- 
pleted to  Brundusium,  through  Capua,  Tres  Ta- 
berna,  and  Beneventum.  Other  than  this  there 
were  a  number  of  earth  roads  leading  from  Rome  in 
various  directions.  One  of  the  most  ancient  of 
these  was  that  over  which  Pyrrhus  marched  as  far  as 
Praeneste,  known  as  the  Via  Latina,  which  ran  over 
the  Tusculum  Hills,  and  the  Alban  Mountain.  The 
Via  Ostiensis  ran  down  the  left  bank  of  the  Tiber ; 
the  Via  Saleria  ran  up  the  river  to  Tibur,  and  was 
afterward  continued,  as  the  Via  Valeria,  over  the 
Apennines  to  the  Adriatic. 

The  population  of  Italy  (at  this  time  less  than 
three  million)was  divided  into  three  general  classes : 
first,  the  Roman  Citizens,  comprising  the  members  of 
the  thirty-three  tribes,  stretching  from  Veil  to  the 
river  Liris,  the  citizens  in  the  Roman  colonies,  and 


THE  ITALIAN  PEOPLES. 


125 


in  certain  municipal  towns ;  the  Latin  Name,  includ- 
ing the  inhabitants  of  the  colonies  generally,  and 
some  of  the  most  flourishing  towns  of  Italy ;  and  the 
Allies,  or  all  other  inhabitants  of  the  peninsula  who 


ROMAN   STREET   PAVEMENT. 


were  dependent  upon  Rome,  but  liked  to  think  that 
they  were  not  subjects.  The  Romans  had  been 
made  rich  and  prosperous  by  war,  and  were  ready  to 
plunge  into  any  new  struggle  promising  additional 
power  and  wealth. 


X. 

AN  AFRICAN  SIROCCO. 

ALL  the  time  that  the  events  that  we  have  been 
giving  our  attention  to  were  occurring — that  is  to 
say,  ever  since  the  foundation  of  Rome,  another  city 
had  been  growing  up  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea,  in  which  a  different  kind  of  civilization 
had  been  developed.  Carthage,  of  which  we  have 
already  heard,  was  founded  by  citizens  of  Phoenicia. 
The  early  inhabitants  were  from  Tyre,  that  old  city 
of  which  we  read  in  the  Bible,  which  in  the  earliest 
times  was  famous  for  its  rich  commerce.  How  long 
the  people  of  Phoenicia  had  lived  in  their  narrow 
land  under  the  shadow  of  great  Libanus,  we  cannot 
tell,  though  Herodotus,  when  writing  his  history, 
went  there  to  find  out,  and  reported  that  at  that 
time  Tyre  had  existed  twenty-three  hundred  years, 
which  would  make  its  foundation  forty-five  hundred 
years  ago,  and  more.  However  that  may  be,  the 
purple  of  Tyre  and  the  glass  of  Sidon,  another  and 
still  older  Phoenician  city,  were  celebrated  long  be- 
fore Rome  was  heard  of.  It  was  from  this  ancient 
land  that  the  people  of  Carthage  had  come.  It  has 
been  usual  for  emigrants  to  call  their  cities  in  a  new 
land  "new,"  (as  Nova  Scotia,  New  York,  New  Eng. 


CARTHAGE  GROWS  UP.  \1J 

land,  New  Town,  or  Newburg,)  and  that  is  the  way 
in  which  Carthage  was  named,  for  the  word  means, 
in  the  old  language  of  the  Phoenicians,  simply  new 
city,  just  as  Naples  was  merely  the  Greek  for  new 
city,  as  we  have  already  seen. 

Through  six  centuries,  the  people  of  Carthage  had 
been  permitted  by  the  mother-city  to  attend  dili- 
gently to  their  commerce,  their  agriculture,  and  to 


A  PHCENICIAN  VESSEL  (TRIREME). 

the  building  up  of  colonies  along  the  southern  coast 
of  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  advantages  of  their 
position  soon  gave  them  the  greatest  importance 
among  the  colonies  of  the  Phoenicians.  There  was 
Utica,  near  by,  which  had  existed  for  near  three 
centuries  longer  than  Carthage,  but  its  situation  was 
not  so  favorable,  and  it  fell  behind.  Tunes,  now 
called  Tunis,  was  but  ten  or  fifteen  miles  away,  but 
it  also  was  of  less  importance.  The  commerce  of 
Carthage  opened  the  way  for  foreign  conquest, 


128  AM  AFRICAN  SIROCCO. 

and  so,  besides  having  a  sort  of  sovereignty  ovei 
all  the  peoples  on  the  northern  coast  of  Africa, 
she  established  colonies  on  Sardinia,  Corsica,  Sicily, 
and  other  Mediterranean  islands,  and  history  does 
not  go  back  far  enough  to  tell  us  at  how  early  a  date 
she  had  obtained  peaceable  possessions  in  Spain, 
from  the  mines  of  which  she  derived  a  not  inconsid- 
erable share  of  her  riches. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  thought  strange  that  Carthage 
and  Rome  had  not  come  into  conflict  before  the 
time  of  which  we  are  writing,  for  the  distance  be- 
tween the  island  of  Sicily  and  the  African  coast  is  so 
small  that  but  a  few  hours  would  have  been  occupied 
in  sailing  across.  It  may  be  accounted  for  by  the 
facts  that  the  Carthaginians  attended  to  their  own 
business,  and  the  Romans  did  not  engage  to  any  ex- 
tent in  maritime  enterprises.  On  several  occasions, 
however,  Carthage  had  sent  her  compliments  across 
to  Rome,  though  Rome  does  not  appear  to  have 
reciprocated  them  to  any  great  degree  ;  and  four 
formal  treaties  between  the  cities  are  reported,  B.C. 
509,  348,  306,  and  279. 

It  is  said  that  when  Pyrrhus,  King  of  Epirus,  was 
about  to  leave  Sicily,  he  exclaimed  :  "  What  a  grand 
arena*  this  would  be  for  Rome  and  Carthage  to  con- 
tend upon  !  "  It  did  not  require  the  wisdom  of  an 

*  Arena'm  Latin  meant  "sand,"  and  as  the  cental  portions  of  the 
amphitheatres  were  strewn  with  sand  to  absorb  the  blood  of  the  fight- 
ing gladiators  and  beasts,  an  arena  came  to  mean,  as  at  present,  any 
open,  public  place  for  an  exhibition.  To  the  ancients,  howeyer,  it 
brought  to  mind  the  desperate  combats  to  which  the  thousands  of 
spectators  were  wont  to  pay  wrapt  attention,  and  it  was  a  much  more 
vivid  word  than  it  now  is. 


THE  MAMERT1NES  IN  SICILY.  I2g 

oracle  to  suggest  that  such  a  contest  would  come 
at  some  time,  for  the  rich  island  lay  just  between  the 
two  cities,  apparently  ready  to  be  grasped  by  the 
more  enterprising  or  the  stronger.  As  Carthage  saw 
the  gradual  extension  of  Roman  authority  over 
Southern  Italy,  she  realized  that  erelong  the  strong 
arm  would  reach  out  too  far  in  the  direction  of  the 
African  continent.  She  was,  accordingly,  on  her 
guard,  as  she  needed  to  be. 

At  about  the  time  of  the  beginning  of  the  war 
with  Pyrrhus,  a  band  of  soldiers  from  Campania, 
which  had  been  brought  to  Sicily,  took  possession  of 
the  town  of  Messana,  a  place  on  the  eastern  end  of 
the  island  not  far  from  the  celebrated  rocks  Scylla 
and  Charybdis,  opposite  Rhegium.  Calling  them- 
selves Mamertines,  after  Mars,  one  form  of  whose 
name  was  Mamers,  these  interlopers  began  to  extend 
their  power  over  the  island.  In  their  contests  with 
Hiero,  King  of  Syracuse,  they  found  themselves  in 
need  of  help.  In  the  emergency  there  was  a  fatal 
division  of  counsel,  one  party  wishing  to  call  upon 
Rome  and  the  other  thinking  best  to  ask  Carthage, 
which  already  held  the  whole  of  the  western  half 
of  the  island  and  the  northern  coast,  and  had  for 
centuries  been  aiming  at  complete  possession  of  the 
remainder.  Owing  to  this  want  of  united  purpose 
it  came  about  that  both  cities  were  appealed  to,  and 
it  very  naturally  happened  that  the  fortress  of  the 
Mamertines  was  occupied  by  a  garrison  from  Car- 
thage before  Rome  was  able  to  send  its  army. 

The  Roman  senate  had  hesitated  to  send  help  to 
the  Mamertines  because  they  were  people  whom 


130  AN  AFRICAN  SIROCCO. 

they  had  driven  out  of  Rhegium,  as  robbers,  six 
years  before,  with  the  aid  of  the  same  Hiero,  of  Syra- 
cuse, who  was  now  besieging  them.  However,  the 
people  of  Rome,  not  troubled  with  the  honest 
scruples  of  the  senate,  were,  under  the  direction  of 
the  consuls,  inflamed  by  the  hope  of  conquest  and  of 
the  riches  that  they  expected  would  follow  success, 
and  a  war  which  lasted  twenty-three  years  was  the 
result  of  their  reckless  greed  (B.C.  264). 

The  result  was  really  decided  during  the  first  two 
years,  for  the  Romans  persuaded  the  Mamertines  to 
expel  the  Carthaginians  from  Messana,  and  then, 
though  besieged  by  them  and  by  Hiero,  drove  them 
both  off,  and  in  the  year  263  took  many  Sicilian 
towns  and  even  advanced  to  Syracuse.  Then  Hiero 
concluded  a  peace  with  Rome  to  which  he  was  faith- 
ful to  the  time  of  his  death,  fifty  years  afterward. 
The  Sicilian  city  next  to  Syracuse  in  importance  was 
Agrigentum,  and  this  the  Romans  took  the  next 
year,  thus  turning  the  tables  and  making  themselves 
instead  of  the  Carthaginians  masters  of  most  of  the 
important  island,  with  the  exception  of  Panormus 
and  Mount  Eryx,  near  Drepanum  (B.C.  262). 

The  Carthaginians,  being  a  commercial  people,  were 
well  supplied  with  large  ships,  and  the  Romans  now 
saw  that  they,  too,  must  have  a  navy.  Possessing 
no  models  on  which  to  build  ships  of  war  larger  than 
those  with  three  banks  of  oars,*  they  took  advantage 

*  The  ancient  war  vessels  were  moved  by  both  sails  and  oars  ;  but 
the  oars  were  the  great  dependence  in  a  fight.  At  first  there  was  but 
one  bank  of  oars  ;  but  soon  there  were  two  rows  of  oarsmen,  seated 
one  above  the  other,  the  uppermost  having  long  oars.  After  awhila 
three  banks  were  arranged,  then  four,  now  five,  and  later  more,  th« 


A   CLUMSY  NAVY.  131 

of  the  fact  that  a  Carthaginian  vessel  of  five  banks 
(a.  quinquireme)  was  wrecked  on  their  shores,  and  in 
the  remarkably  short  space  of  time  of  less  than  two 
months  built  and  launched  one  hundred  and  thirty 
vessels  of  that  size !  They  were  clumsy,  however, 
and  the  crews  that  manned  them  were  poorly  trained, 
but,  nevertheless,  the  bold  Romans  ventured,  under 
command  of  Caius  Duilius,  to  attack  the  enemy  off 


A  ROMAN  WAR  VESSEL. 

the  Sicilian  town  of  Mylae,  and  the  Carthaginians 
were  overwhelmed,  what  remained  of  their  fleet  be- 
ing forced  to  seek  safety  in  flight.  The  naval  prestige 

uppermost  oars  being  of  immense  length,  and  requiring  several  men 
to  operate  each.  We  do  not  now  know  exactly  how  so  many  ranges  of 
rowers  were  accommodated,  nor  how  such  umvieldly  oars  were  man- 
aged. The  Athenians  tried  various  kinds  of  ships,  but  concluded  that 
Ught  and  active  vessels  were  better  than  awkward  quinquiremes. 


132  AN  AFRICAN  SIROCCO. 

of  Carthage  was  destroyed.  There  was  a  grand  cele- 
bration of  the  victory  at  Rome,  and  a  column 
adorned  with  the  ornamental  prows  of  ships  was  set 
up  in  the  forum. 

For  a  few  years  the  war  was  pursued  with  but 
little  effect ;  but  in  the  ninth  year,  when  the  favor- 
ite Marcus  Atilius  Regulus  was  consul,  it  was  de- 
termined to  carry  it  on  with  more  vigor,  to  invade 
Africa  with  an  overwhelming  force,  and,  if  possible, 
close  the  struggle.  Regulus  sailed  from  Economus, 
not  far  from  Agrigentum,  with  three  hundred  and 
thirty  vessels  and  one  hundred  thousand  men,  but 
his  progress  was  soon  interrupted  by  the  Cartha- 
ginian fleet,  commanded  by  Hamilcar.  After  one  of 
the  greatest  sea-fights  of  all  time,  in  which  the 
Carthaginians  lost  nearly  a  hundred  ships  and  many 
men,  the  Romans  gained  the  victory,  and  found 
nothing  to  hinder  their  progress  to  the  African 
shore.  The  enemy  hastened  with  the  remainder  of 
their  fleet  to  protect  Carthage,  and  the  conflict  was 
transferred  to  Africa.  Regulus  prosecuted  the  war 
with  vigor,  and,  owing  to  the  incompetence  of  the 
generals  opposed  to  him,  was  successful  to  an  extra- 
ordinary degree.  Both  he  and  the  senate  became 
intoxicated  to  such  an  extent,  that  when  the  Cartha- 
ginians made  overtures  for  peace,  only  intolerable 
terms  were  offered  them.  This  resulted  in  prolong- 
ing the  war,  for  the  Carthaginians  called  to  their  aid 
Xanthippus,  a  Spartan  general,  who  showed  them 
the  weakness  of  their  officers,  and,  finally,  when  his 
army  had  been  well  drilled,  offered  battle  to  Regulus 
on  level  ground,  where  the  dreaded  African  elephants 


THE  HEROIC  REGULUS.  133 

were  of  service,  instead  of  among  the  mountains. 
The  Roman  army  was  almost  annihilated,  and  Regu- 
lus  himself  was  taken  prisoner  (B.C.  255). 

The  Romans  saw  that  to  retain  a  footing  in  Africa 
they  must  first  have  control  of  the  sea.  Though  the 
fleet  that  brought  back  the  remains  of  the  army  of 
Regulus  was  destroyed,  another  of  two  hundred  and 
twenty  ships  was  made  ready  in  three  months,  only, 
however,  to  meet  a  similar  fate  off  Cape  Palinurus 
on  the  coast  of  Lucania.  The  Romans,  at  Panormus 
(now  Palermo),  were,  in  the  year  250,  attacked  by 
the  Carthaginians,  over  whom  they  gained  a  victory 
which  decided  the  struggle,  though  it  was  continued 
nine  years  longer,  owing  to  the  rich  resources  of  the 
Carthaginians.  After  this  defeat  an  embassy  was 
sent  to  Rome  to  ask  terms  of  peace.  Regulus,  who 
had  then  been  five  years  a  captive,  accompanied  it, 
and,  it  is  said,  urged  the  senate  not  to  make  terms. 
He  then  returned  to  Carthage  and  suffered  a  terrible 
death.  The  character  given  him  in  the  old  histories 
and  his  horrible  fate  made  Regulus  the  favorite  of 
orators  for  ages. 

The  Romans  now  determined  to  push  the  war  vigor- 
ously, and  began  the  siege  of  Lilybaeum  (now  Mar- 
sala), which  was  the  only  place  besides  Drepanum,  fif- 
teen miles  distant,  yet  remaining  to  the  enemy  on  the 
island  of  Sicily  (B.C.  250).  It  was  not  until  the  end  of 
the  war  that  the  Carthaginians  could  be  forced  from 
these  two  strongholds.  Six  years  before  that  time 
(B.C.  247),  there  came  to  the  head  of  Carthaginian 
affairs  a  man  of  real  greatness,  Hamilcar  Barca, 
whose  last  name  is  said  to  mean  lightning;  but 


134  AN  AFRICAN  SIROCCO. 

even  he  was  not  strong  enough  to  overcome  the 
difficulties  caused  by  the  faults  of  others,  and  in  241 
he  counselled  peace,  which  was  accordingly  conclud- 
ed, though  Carthage  was  obliged  to  pay  an  enormous 
indemnity,  and  to  give  up  her  claim  to  Sicily,  which 
^became  a  part  of  the  Roman  dominion  (the  first 
"  province  "  so-called),  governed  by  an  officer  annually 
sent  from  Rome.  Hamilcar  had  at  first  established 
himself  on  Mount  Ercte,  overhanging  Panormus, 
whence  he  made  constant  descents  upon  the  enemy, 
ravaging  the  coast  as  far  as  Mount  vEtna.  Suddenly 
he  quitted  this  place  and  occupied  Mount  Eryx, 
another  height,  overlooking  Drepanum,  where  he  sup- 
ported himself  two  years  longer,  and  the  Romans 
despaired  of  dislodging  him. 

In  their  extremity,  they  twice  resorted  to  the  navy, 
and  at  last,  with  a  fleet  of  two  hundred  ships,  defeated 
the  Carthaginians  off  the  ^gusae  Islands,  to  the  west 
of  Sicily,  and  as  the  resources  of  Hamilcar  were  then 
cut  off,  it  was  only  a  question  of  time  when  the  ar- 
mies at  Eryx,  Drepanum,  and  Lilybaeum  would  be  re- 
duced by  famine.  It  was  in  view  of  this  fact  that  the 
settlement  was  effected. 

A  period  of  peace  followed  this  long  war,  during 
which  at  one  time,  in  the  year  235,  the  gates  of  the 
temple  of  Janus,  which  were  always  open  during 
war  and  had  not  been  shut  since  the  days  of  Numa, 
were  closed,  but  it  was  only  for  a  short  space.  After 
this  war,  the  Carthaginians  became  involved  with 
their  own  troops,  who  arose  in  mutiny  because  they 
could  not  get  their  pay,  and  Rome  took  advantage  of 
this  to  rob  them  of  the  islands  of  Sardinia  and  Cor- 


PERFIDIOUS  QUEEN   TEUTA.  135 

sica,  and  at  the  same  time  to  demand  a  large  addition 
to  the  indemnity  fund  that  had  been  agreed  upon  at 
the  peace  (B.C.  227).  Such  arbitrary  treatment  of  a 
conquered  foe  could  not  fail  to  beget  and  keep  alive 
the  deepest  feelings  of  resentment,  of  which,  in  after 
years,  Rome  reaped  the  bitter  fruits. 

The  Adriatic  Sea  was  at  that  time  infested  with  pi- 
rates from  Illyria,  the  country  north  of  Epirus,  just 
over  the  sea  to  the  east  of  Italy,  and  as  Roman  towns 
suffered  from  their  inroads,  an  embassy  was  sent  to 
make  complaint.  One  of  these  peaceful  messengers 
was  murdered  by  direction  of  the  queen  of  the  coun- 
try, Teuta,  by  name,  and  of  course  war  was  declared, 
which  ended  in  the  overthrow  of  the  treacherous 
queen.  Her  successor,  however,  when  he  thought 
that  the  Romans  were  too  much  occupied  with  other 
matters  to  oppose  him  successfully,  renewed  the  pi- 
ratical incursions  (B.C.  219),  and  in  spite  of  the  other 
wars  this  brought  out  a  sufficient  force  from  Rome. 
The  Illyrian  sovereign  was  forced  to  fly,  and  all  his 
domain  came  under  the  Roman  power. 

Meantime  the  Romans  had  begun  to  think  of  the 
extensive  tracts  to  the  north  acquired  from  the  Gauls, 
and  in  232  B.C.,  a  law  was  passed  dividing  them  among 
the  poorer  people  and  the  veterans,  in  the  expecta- 
tion of  attracting  inhabitants  to  that  part  of  Italy. 
The  barbarians  were  alarmed  by  the  prospect  of  the 
approach  of  Roman  civilization,  and  in  225,  united 
to  make  a  new  attack  upon  their  old  enemies.  When 
it  was  rumored  at  Rome  that  the  Gauls  were  prepar- 
ing to  make  a  stand  and  probably  intended  to  invade 
the  territory  of  their  southern  neighbors,  the  terrible 


136  AN-  AFRICAN-  SIROCCO. 

days  of  the  Allia  were  vividly  brought  to  mind  and 
the  greatest  consternation  reigned.  The  Sibylline  or 
other  sacred  books  were  carefully  searched  for  coun- 
sel in  the  emergency,  and  in  obedience  to  instructions 
therein  found,  two  Gauls  and  two  Greeks  (a  man  and 
a  woman  of  each  nation)  were  buried  alive  in  the  Fo- 
rum Boarium,*  and  the  public  excitement  somewhat 
allayed  in  that  horrible  way.  A  large  army  was  im- 
mediately raised,  and  sent  to  meet  the  Gauls  at  Ari- 
minum  on  the  Adriatic,  but  they  avoided  it  by  tak- 
ing a  route  further  to  the  west.  They  were  met  by 
a  reserve  force,  however,  which  suffered  a  great  de- 
feat, probably  near  Clusium.  Afterwards  the  main 
army  effected  a  junction  with  another  body  coming 
from  Pisa,  and  as  the  Gauls  were  attacked  on  both 
sides  at  once,  they  were  annihilated.  This  battle 
occurred  near  Telamon,  in  Etruria,  not  far  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Umbria.  The  victory  was  fol- 
lowed up,  and  after  three  years,  the  whole  of  the 
valley  of  the  Po,  between  the  Alps  and  the  Apen- 
nines, was  made  a  permanent  addition  to  Roman 
territory.  Powerful  colonies  were  planted  at  Pla- 
centia  and  Cremona  to  secure  it. 

No  greater  generals  come  before  us  in  the  grand 
story  of  Rome  than  those  who  are  now  to  appear. 

*  The  Forum  Boarium,  though  one  of  the  largest  and  most  cele- 
brated public  places  in  the  city,  was  not  a  regular  market  surrounded 
wjth  walls,  but  an  irregular  space  bounded  by  the  Tiber  on  the  west, 
and  the  Palatine  Hill  and  the  Circus  Maximus  on  the  east.  The 
Cloaca  Maxima  ran  beneath  it,  and  it  was  rich  in  temples  and  monu- 
ments. On  it  the  first  gladiatorial  exhibition  occurred,  B.C.  264,  and 
there  too,  other  burials  of  living  persons  had  been  made,  in  spite  of  the 
long-ago  abolishment  of  such  rites  by  Numa. 


HANNIBAL  AND   SCIPlO  APPEAR. 


'37 


One  was  born  while  the  first  Punic  war  was  still 
raging,  and  the  other  in  the  year  235,  when  the  gates 
of  the  temple  of  Janus  were,  for  the  first  time  in 


HANNIBAL. 


centuries,  closed  in  token  that  Rome  was  at  peace 
with  the  world.  Hannibal,  the  elder  of  the  two  was 
son  of  Hamilcar  Barca,  and  inherited  his  father's 
hatred  of  Rome,  to  which,  indeed,  he  had  been 


138  AN  AFRICAN  SIROCCO. 

bound  by  a  solemn  oath,  willingly  sworn  upon  the 
altar  at  the  dictation  of  his  father. 

When  Livy  began  his  story  of  the  second  war 
between  Rome  and  Carthage,  he  said  that  he  was 
about  to  relate  the  most  memorable  of  all  wars  that 
ever  were  waged ;  and  though  we  may  not  express 
ourselves  in  such  general  terms,  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
no  struggle  recorded  in  the  annals  of  antiquity,  or  of 
the  middle  age,  surpasses  it  in  importance  or  in  his- 
torical interest.  The  war  was  to  decide  whether 
the  conqueror  of  the  world  was  to  be  self-centred 
Rome ;  or  whether  it  should  be  a  nation  of  traders, 
commanded  by  a  powerful  general  who  dictated  to 
them  their  policy, — a  nation  not  adapted  to  unite  the 
different  peoples  in  bonds  of  sympathy, — one  whose 
success  would,  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Arnold,  "have 
stopped  the  progress  of  the  world." 

Hannibal  stands  out  among  the  famed  generals  of 
history  as  one  of  the  very  greatest.  We  must 
remember  that  we  have  no  records  of  his  own  coun- 
trymen to  show  how  he  was  estimated  among  them ; 
but  we  know  that  though  he  was  poorly  supported 
by  the  powers  at  home,  he  was  able  to  keep  together 
an  army  of  great  size,  by  the  force  of  his  own  per- 
sonality, and  to  wage  a  disastrous  war  against  the 
strongest  people  of  his  age,  far  from  his  base  of  sup- 
plies, in  the  midst  of  the  enemy's  country.  It  has 
well  been  said  that  the  greatest  masters  of  the  art  of 
war,  from  Scipio  to  Napoleon,  have  concurred  in 
homage  to  his  genius. 

The  other  hero,  and  the  successful  one,  in  the 
great  struggle,  was  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio,  who 


FABIUS  THE  CUNCTATOR.  139 

was  born  in  that  year  when  the  temple  of  Janus  was 
closed,  of  a  family  that  for  a  series  of  generations 
had  been  noted  in  Roman  history,  and  was  to  con- 
tinue illustrious  for  generations  to  come. 

Another  among  the  many  men  of  note  who  came 
into  prominence  during  the  second  war  with  Car- 
thage was  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus,  a  descendant 
of  that  Rullus  who  in  the  Sabine  wars  brought  the 
names  Fabius  and  Maximus  into  prominence.  His 
life  is  given  by  Plutarch  under  the  name  Fabius, 
and  he  is  remembered  as  the  originator  of  the  policy 
of  delay  in  war,  as  our  dictionaries  tell  us,  because 
his  plan  was  to  worry  his  enemy,  rather  than  risk  a 
pitched  battle  with  him.  On  this  account  the 
Romans  called  him  Cunctator,  which  meant  delayer, 
or  one  who  is  slow  though  safe,  not  rash.  He  was 
called  also  Ovicula,  or  the  lamb,  on  account  of  his 
mild  temper,  and  Verrucosus,  because  he  had  a  wart 
on  his  upper  lip  (  Verruca,  a  wart). 

The  second  Punic  war  was  not  so  much  a  struggle 
between  Carthage  and  Rome,  as  a  war  entered  into 
by  Hannibal  and  carried  on  by  him  against  the 
Roman  republic  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  his  own 
people  ;  and  this  fact  makes  the  strength  of  his 
character  appear  in  the  strongest  light.  Just  at  the 
close  of  the  first  war,  the  Carthaginians  had  estab- 
lished in  Spain  a  city  which  took  the  name  of  New 
Carthage — that  is,  New  New  City, — and  had  extended 
their  dominion  over  much  of  that  country,  as  well  as 
over  most  of  the  territory  on  the  south  shore  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea.  Hannibal  laid  seige  to  the  in- 
dependent city  of  Saguntum,  on  the  northeast  of 


140  AM  AFRICAN'  SIROCCO, 

New  Carthage,  and,  after  several  months  of  desperate 
resistance,  took  it,  thus  throwing  down  the  gauntlet 
to  Rome  and  completing  the  dominion  of  Carthage 
in  that  region  (B.C.  218).  Rome  sent  ambassadors 
to  Carthage,  to  ask  reparation  and  the  surrender  of 
Hannibal :  but  "  War  !  "  was  the  only  response,  and 
for  seventeen  years  a  struggle  of  the  most  determined 
sort  was  carried  on  by  Hannibal  and  the  Roman 
armies. 

After  wintering  at  New  Carthage,  Hannibal 
started  for  Italy  with  a  great  army.  He  crossed  the 
Pyrenees,  went  up  the  valley  of  the  Rhone,  and 
then  up  the  valley  of  the  Isere,  and  most  probably 
crossed  the  Alps  by  the  Little  St.  Bernard  pass.  It 
was  an  enterprise  of  the  greatest  magnitude  to  take 
an  army  of  this  size  through  a  hostile  country,  over 
high  mountains,  in  an  inclement  season ;  but  no 
difficulty  daunted  this  general.  In  five  months  he 
found  himself  in  the  valley  of  the  Duria  (modern 
Dora  Baltea),  in  Northern  Italy,  with  a  force  of 
twenty  thousand  foot  and  six  thousand  cavalry  (the 
remains  of  the  army  of  ninety-four  thousand  that 
had  left  New  Carthage),  with  which  he  expected  to 
conquer  a  country  that  counted  its  soldiers  by  the 
hundred  thousand.  The  father  of  the  great  Scipio 
met  Hannibal  in  the  plains  west  of  the  Ticinus,  and 
was  routed,  retreating  to  the  west  bank  of  the  Trebia, 
where  the  Romans,  with  a  larger  force,  were 
again  defeated,  though  the  December  cold  caused 
the  invading  army  great  suffering  and  killed  all  the 
elephants  but  one.  The  success  of  the  Carthaginians 
led  the  Gauls  to  flock  to  their  standard,  and  Hanni- 


TERENCE,  THE  LAST  ROMAN  COMIC  POET. 


142  AN  AFRICAN1  SIROCCO. 

bal  found  himself  able  to  push  forward  with  increas- 
ing vigor. 

Taking  the  route  toward  the  capital,  he  met  the 
Romans  at  Lake  Trasimenus,  and  totally  routed  them, 
killing  the  commander,  Caius  Flaminius,  who  had 
come  from  Arretium  to  oppose  him.  The  defeat 
was  accounted  for  by  the  Romans  by  the  fact  that 
Flaminius,  always  careless  about  his  religious  ob- 
servances, had  broken  camp  at  Ariminum,  whence 
he  had  come  to  Arretium,  though  the  signs  had 
been  against  him,  and  had  also  previously  neglected 
the  usual  solemnities  upon  his  election  as  consul 
before  going  to  Ariminum.  The  policy  of  Hanni- 
bal was  to  make  friends  of  the  allies  of  Rome,  in 
order  to  attract  them  to  his  support,  and  after  his 
successes  he  carefully  tended  the  wounded  and  sent 
the  others  away,  often  with  presents.  He  hoped  to 
undermine  Rome  by  taking  away  her  allies,  and  after 
this  great  success  he  did  not  march  to  the  capital, 
though  he  was  distant  less  than  a  hundred  miles 
from  it,  because  he  expected  to  see  tokens  that  his 
policy  was  a  success. 

The  dismay  that  fell  upon  Rome  when  it  was 
known  that  her  armies  had  twice  been  routed,  can 
better  be  imagined  than  described.  The  senate  came 
together,  and  for  two  days  carefully  considered  the 
critical  state  of  affairs.  They  decided  that  it  was 
necessary  to  appoint  a  dictator,  and  Fabius  Maximus 
was  chosen.  Hannibal  in  the  meantime  continued 
to  avoid  Rome,  and  to  march  through  the  regions  on 
the  Adriatic,  hoping  to  arouse  the  inhabitants  to  his 
support,  In  vain  were  his  efforts.  Even  the  Gauls 


AN"  INACTIVE    VICTOR.  143 

seemed  now  to  have  forgotten  him,  and  Carthage 
itself  did  not  send  him  aid.  Fabius  strove  to  keep 
to  the  high  lands,  where  it  was  impossible  for  Han- 
nibal to  attack  him,  while  he  harassed  him  or  tried 
to  shut  him  up  in  some  defile. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  216,  both  parties  were 
prepared  for  a  more  terrible  struggle  than  had  yet 
been  seen.  The  Romans  put  their  forces  under  one 
Varro,  a  business  man,  who  was  considered  the 
champion  of  popular  liberty.  The  armies  met  on 
the  field  of  Cannae,  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Aufidus 
which  enters  the  Adriatic,  and  there  the  practical 
man  was  defeated  with  tremendous  slaughter,  though 
he  was  able  himself  to  escape  toward  the  mountains 
to  Venusia,  and  again  to  return  to  Canusium.  There 
he  served  the  state  so  well  that  his  defeat  was  almost 
forgotten,  and  he  was  actually  thanked  by  the  sen- 
ate for  his  skill  in  protecting  the  remnant  of  the 
wasted  army. 

The  people  now  felt  that  the  end  of  the  republic 
had  come,  but  still  they  would  not  listen  to  Hannibal 
when  he  sent  messengers  to  ask  terms  of  peace.  They 
were  probably  surprised  when,  instead  of  marching 
upon  their  capital,  the  Carthaginian  remained  in 
comparative  inactivity,  in  pursuance  of  his  former 
policy.  He  was  not  entirely  disappointed  this  time, 
in  expecting  that  his  brilliant  victory  would  lead 
some  of  the  surrounding  nations  to  declare  in  his 
favor,  for  finally  the  rich  city  of  Capua,  which  con- 
sidered itself  equal  to  Rome,  opened  to  him  its  gates, 
and  he  promised  to  make  it  the  capital  of  Italy 
(B.C.  2 1 6).  With  Capua  went  the  most  of  Southern 


144  AN  AFRICAN  SIROCCO. 

Italy,  and    Hannibal  thought   that   the  war  would 
soon  end  after  such  victories,  but  he  was  mistaken. 

Two  other  sources  of  help  gave  him  hope,  but  at 
last  failed  him.  Philip  V.,  one  of  the  ablest  mon- 
archs  of  Macedon,  who  had  made  a  treaty  with  Han- 
nibal after  the  battle  of  Cannae,  tried  to  create  a 
diversion  in  his  favor  on  the  other  side  of  the  Adri- 
atic, but  his  schemes  were  not  energetically  pressed,' 
and  failed.  Again,  a  new  king  of  Syracuse,  who  had 
followed  Hiero,  offered  direct  assistance,  but  he,  too, 
was  overcome,  and  his  strong  and  wealthy  city  taken 
with  terrible  carnage,  though  the  scientific  skill  of 
the  famous  Archimedes  long  enabled  its  ruler  to  baffle 
the  Roman  generals  (B.C.  212).  The  Romans  overran 
the  Spanish  peninsula,  too,  and  though  they  were  for 
a  time  brought  to  a  stand,  in  the  year  210  the  state 
of  affairs  changed.  A  young  man  of  promise,  who 
had,  however,  never  been  tried  in  positions  of  great 
trust,  was  sent  out.  It  was  the  great  Scipio,  who 
has  been  already  mentioned.  He  captured  New 
Carthage,  made  himself  master  of  Spain,  and  was 
ready  by  the  year  207  to  take  the  last  step,  as  he 
thought  it  would  be,  by  carrying  the  war  into  Africa, 
and  thus  obliging  Hannibal  to  withdraw  from  Italy. 

At  home,  the  aged  Fabius  was  meantime  the 
trusted  leader  in  public  counsels,  and  by  his  careful 
generalship  Campania  had  been  regained.  Capua, 
too,  had  been  recaptured,  though  that  enterprise  had 
been  undertaken  in  spite  of  his  cautious  advice. 
Hannibal  was  thus  obliged  to  withdraw  to  Lower 
Italy,  after  he  had  threatened  Rome  by  marching 
boldly  up  to  its  very  gates.  The  Samnites  and 


CLOSE   OF   THE   CAREER  OF  FABIUS. 


145 


Lucanians  submitted,  and  Tarentum  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Fabius,  whose  active  career  then  closed. 
He  had  opposed  the  more  aggressive  measures  of 
Scipio  which  were  to  lead  to  success,  but  we  can 
hardly  think  that  the  old  commander  was  led  to  do  this 


PUBLIUS  CORNELIUS   SCIPIO   AFRICANUS. 

because,  seeing  that  victory  was  to  be  the  result,  he 
envied  the  younger  soldier  who  was  to  achieve 
the  final  laurels,  though  Plutarch  mentions  that 
sinister  motive.  The  career  of  Fabius,  which  had 
opened  at  the  battle  of  Cannx,  and  had  been  success- 


146  AN  AFRICAN  SIROCCO. 

ful  ever  since,  culminated  in  his  triumph  after  the 
fall  of  Tarentum,  which  occurred  in  B.C.  209. 

Now  the  Carthaginian  army  in  Spain,  under  com- 
mand of  Hasdrubal,  made  an  effort  to  go  to  the 
help  of  Hannibal,  and,  taking  the  same  route  by  the 
Little  St.  Bernard  pass,  arrived  in  Italy  (B.C.  208) 
almost  before  the  enemy  was  aware  of  its  intention. 
Hannibal,  on  his  part,  began  to  march  northward 
from  his  southern  position,  and  after  gaining  some 
unimportant  victories,  arrived  at  Canusium,  where 
he  stopped  to  wait  for  his  brother.  The  Romans, 
however,  managed  to  intercept  the  dispatches  of 
Hasdrubal,  and  marched  against  him,  in  the  spring 
of  207,  after  he  had  wasted  much  time  in  unsuccess- 
fully besieging  Placentia.  The  two  armies  met  on 
the  banks  of  the  river  Metaurus.  The  Cartha- 
ginians were  defeated  with  terrible  slaughter,  and 
the  Romans  felt  that  the  calamity  of  Cannae  was 
avenged.  Hasdrubal's  head  was  sent  to  his  brother, 
who  exclaimed  at  the  sight :  "  I  recognize  the  doom 
of  Carthage  !  " 

For  four  years  Hannibal  kept  his  army  among  the 
mountains  of  Southern  Italy,  feeling  that  his  effort 
at  conquering  Rome  had  failed.  Meantime  Scipio 
was  making  arrangements  to  carry  out  his  favorite 
project,  though  in  face  of  much  opposition  from 
Fabius  and  from  the  senate,  which  followed  his  lead. 
The  people  were,  however,  with  Scipio,  and  though 
he  was  not  able  to  make  such  complete  preparations 
as  he  wished,  by  the  year  204  he  had  made  ready  to 
set  out  from  Lilybaeum  for  Africa.  At  Utica  he 
was  joined  by  his  allies,  and,  in  203,  defeated  the 


THE  ROUT  AT  ZAMA.  147 

Carthaginians  and  caused  them  to  look  anxiously 
across  the  sea  toward  their  absent  general  for  help. 
Pretending  to  desire  peace,  they  took  advantage  of 
the  time  gained  by  negotiations  to  send  for  Hanni- 
bal, who  reached  Africa  before  the  year  closed,  after 
an  absence  of  fifteen  years,  and  took  up  his  position 
at  Hadrumentum,  where  he  looked  over  the  field 
and  sadly  determined  to  ask  for  terms  of  peace. 
Scipio  was  desirous  of  the  glory  of  closing  the  long 
struggle,  and  refused  to  make  terms,  thus  forcing 
Hannibal  to  continue  the  war.  The  Romans  went 
about  ravaging  the  country  until,  at  last,  a  pitched 
battle  was  brought  about  at  a  place  near  Zama,  in- 
which,  though  Hannibal  managed  his  army  with  his- 
usual  skill,  he  was  overcome  and  utterly  routed. 
He  now  again  advised  peace,  and  accepted  less 
favorable  terms  than  had  been  before  offered. 
Henceforth  Carthage  was  to  pay  an  annual  war- 
contribution  to  Rome,  and  was  not  to  enter  upon 
war  with  any  nation  in  Africa,  or  anywhere  else, 
without  the  consent  of  her  conquerors.  Scipio  re- 
turned to  Rome  in  the  year  201,  and  enjoyed  a 
magnificent  triumph,  the  name  Africanus  being  at 
the  same  time  added  to  his  patronymic.  Other 
honors  were  offered  him,  but  the  most  extraordinary 
of  them  he  declined  to  accept. 

Hannibal,  though  overcome,  stands  forth  as  the 
greatest  general.  At  the  age  of  forty-five  he  now 
found  himself  defeated  in  the  proud  plans  of  his 
youth ;  but,  with  manly  strength,  he  refused  to  be 
cast  down,  and  set  about  work  for  the  improvement 
of  his  depressed  city.  It  was  not  long  before  he 


148  AN  AFRICAN  SIROCCO. 

aroused  the  opposition  which  has  often  come  to 
public  benefactors,  and  was  obliged  to  flee  from  Car- 
thage. From  that  time,  he  was  a  wanderer  on.  the 
earth.  Ever  true  to  his  hatred  of  Rome,  however, 
he  continued  to  plot  for  her  downfall  even  in  his 
exile.  He  went  to  Tyre  and  then  to  Ephesus,  and 
tried  to  lead  the  Syrian  monarch  Antiochus  to  make 
successful  inroads  upon  his  old  enemy.  Obliged  to 
flee  in  turn  from  Ephesus,  he  sought  an  asylum  at 
the  court  of  Prusias,  King  of  Bithynia.  At  last, 
seeing  that  he  was  in  danger  of  being  delivered  up 
to  the  Romans,  in  despair  he  took  his  own  life  at 
Libyssa,  in  the  year  182  or  181.  Thus  ignominiously 
ended  the  career  of  the  man  who  stood  once  at  the 
head  of  the  commanders  of  the  world,  and  whose 
memory  is  still  honored  for  the  magnificence  of  his 
ambition  in  daring  to  attack  and  expecting  to  con- 
quer the  most  powerful  nation  of  his  time. 


XI. 


THE  NEW  PUSHES  THE  OLD — WARS  AND  CONQUESTS. 

THERE  were  days  of  tumult  in  Rome  in  the  year 
195,  which  illustrate  the  temper  of  the  times,  and 
show  how  the  city  and  the  people  had  changed,  and 
were  changing,  under  the  influence  of  two  opposite 
forces.  A  vivid  picture  of  the  scenes  around  the 
Capitol  at  the  time  has  been  preserved.  Men  were 
hastening  to  the  meeting  of  the  magistrates  from 
every  direction.  The  streets  were  crowded,  and  not 
with  men  chiefly,  for  something  which  interested  the 
matrons  seemed  to  be  uppermost,  and  women  were 
thronging  in  the  same  direction,  in  spite  of  custom, 
which  would  have  kept  them  at  home]  in  spite  even 
of  the  commands  of  many  of  their  husbands,  who 
were  opposed  to  their  frequenting  public  assemblies. 
Not  only  on  one  day  did  the  women  pour  out  into 
all  the  avenues  leading  to  the  forum,  but  once  and 
again  they  thrust  themselves  into  the  presence  of 
the  law-makers.  Nor  were  they  content  to  stand  or 
sit  in  quiet  while  their  husbands  and  brothers  argued 
and  made  eloquent  speeches ;  they  actually  solicited 
the  votes  of  the  stronger  sex  in  behalf  of  a  motion 
that  was  evidently  very  important  in  their  minds. 

Of  old  time,  the  Romans  had  thought  that  women 


I$0  THE  NEW  PUSHES  THE  OLD. 

should  keep  at  home,  and  that  in  the  transaction  of 
private  business  even  they  should  be  under  the  di- 
rection of  their  parents,  brothers,  or  husbands.  What 
had  wrought  so  great  a  change  that  on  these  days 
the  Roman  matrons  not  only  ventured  into  the 
forum,  but  actually  engaged  in  public  business,  and 
that,  as  has  been  said,  in  many  instances,  in  opposi- 
tion to  those  parents,  brothers,  and  husbands  who 
were  in  those  old  times  their  natural  directors  ?  We 
shall  find  the  reason  by  going  back  to  the  days  when 
the  cost  of  the  Punic  wars  bore  heavily  upon  the 
state.  It  was  then  that  a  law  was  passed  that  no 
woman  should  wear  any  garment  of  divers  colors, 
nor  own  more  gold  than  a  half-ounce  in  weight,  nor 
ride  through  the  streets  of  a  city  in  a  carriage  drawn 
by  horses,  nor  in  any  place  nearer  than  a  mile  to  a 
town,  except  for  the  purpose  of  engaging  in  a  public 
religious  solemnity.  The  spirited  matrons  of  Rome 
were  ever  ready  to  bear  their  share  of  the  public  bur- 
dens, and  though  some  thought  this  oppressive,  but 
few  murmurs  escaped  them  as  they  read  the  Oppian 
law,  as  it  was  called,  when  it  was  passed,  for  the  days 
were  dark,  and  the  shadow  of  the  defeat  at  Cannae 
was  bowing  down  all  hearts,  and  their  brothers  and 
parents  and  husbands  were  trembling,  strong  men 
that  they  were,  at  the  threatening  situation  of  the 
state.  Now,  however,  the  condition  of  affairs  had 
changed.  The  conquests  of  the  past  few  years  had 
brought  large  wealth  into  the  city,  and  was  it  to  be 
expected  that  women  should  not  wish  to  adorn 
themselves,  as  of  yore,  with  gold  and  garments  of 
richness  ? 


A  ROMAN   MATRON. 


152  THE  NEW  PUSHES  THE   OLD. 

When  now  the  repeal  of  the  law  was  to  be  dis- 
cussed, the  excitement  became  so  intense  that  people 
forgot  that  Spain  was  in  a  state  of  insurrection,  and 
that  war  threatened  on  every  side.  Women  thronged 
to  the  city  from  towns  and  villages,  and  even  dared, 
as  has  been  said,  to  approach  the  consuls  and  other 
magistrates  to  solicit  their  votes.  Marcus  Porcius 
Cato,  a  young  man  of  about  forty  years,  who  had 
been  brought  up  on  a  farm,  and  looked  with  the 
greatest  respect  upon  the  virtue  of  the  olden  times, 
before  Grecian  influences  had  crept  in  to  soften  and 
refine  the  hard  Roman  character,  -represented  the 
party  of  conservatism.  Now,  thought  he,  is  an  op- 
portunity for  me  to  stand  against  the  corrupting 
influence  of  Magna  Graecia.  He  therefore  rose  and 
made  a  long  speech  in  opposition  to  the  petition  of 
the  matrons.  He  thought  they  had  become  thus 
contumacious,  he  said,  because  the  men  had  not 
individually  exercised  their  rightful  authority  over 
their  own  wives.  "  The  privileges  of  men  are  now 
spurned,  trodden  under  foot,"  he  exclaimed,  "  and 
we,  who  have  shown  that  we  are  unable  to  stand 
against  the  women  separately,  are  now  utterly  pow- 
erless against  them  as  a  body.  Their  behavior  is 
outrageous.  I  was  filled  with  painful  emotions  of 
shame  as  I  just  now  made  my  way  into  the  forum 
through  the  midst  of  a  body  of  women.  Will  you 
consent  to  give  the  reins  to  their  intractable  nature 
and  their  uncontrolled  passions  ?  The  moment  they 
had  arrived  at  equality  with  you,  they  will  have 
become  your  superiors.  What  motive  that  common 
decency  will  allow  is  pretended  for  this  female  insur- 


THE  MATRONS  SOLICIT   VOTES.  153 

rection  ?  Why,  that  they  may  shine  in  gold  and 
purple;  that  they  may  ride  through  our  city  in 
chariots  triumphing  over  abrogated  law ;  that  there 
maybe  no  bounds  to  waste  and  luxury!  So  soon 
as  the  law  shall  cease  to  limit  the  expenses  of  the 
wife,  the  husband  will  be  powerless  to  set  bounds  to 
them."  As  the  uttermost  measure  of  the  abasement 
to  which  the  women  had  descended,  Cato  declared 
with  indignation  that  they  had  solicited  votes,  and 
he  concluded  by  saying  that  though  he  called  upon 
the  gods  to  prosper  whatever  action  should  be  agreed 
upon,  he  thought  that  on  no  account  should  the 
Oppian  law  be  set  aside. 

When  Cato  had  finished,  one  of  the  plebeian  tri- 
bunes, Lucius  Valerius,  replied  to  him  sarcastically, 
saying  that  in  spite  of  the  mild  disposition  of  the 
speaker  who  had  just  concluded,  he  had  uttered 
some  severe  things  against  the  matrons,  though  he 
had  not  argued  very  efficiently  against  the  measure 
they  supported.  He  referred  his  hearers  to  a  book 
of  Cato's,*  called  Origines,  or  "  Antiquities,"  in 
which  it  was  made  clear  that  in  the  old  times  women 
had  appeared  in  public,  and  with  good  effect  too. 
"  Who  rushed  into  the  forum  in  the  days  of  Rom- 
ulus, and  stopped  the  fight  with  the  Sabines?"  he 
asked.  "Who  went  out  and  turned  back  the  army 
of  the  great  Coriolanus?  Who  brought  their  gold 
and  jewels  into  the  forum  when  the  Gauls  demanded 
a  great  ransom  for  the  city?  Who  went  out  to  the 
sea-shore  during  the  late  war  to  receive  the  Idasan 

*  Livy  is  authority  for  this  statement,  but  it  has  been  doubted  if 
Cato's  book  had  been  written  at  the  time. 


154  THE  NEW  PUSHES  THE  OLD. 

mother  (Cybele)  when  new  gods  were  invited  hither 
to  relieve  our  distresses?  Who  poured  out  their 
riches  to  supply  a  depleted  treasury  during  that 
same  war,  now  so  fresh  in  memory  ?  Was  it  not  the 
Roman  matrons?  Masters  do  not  disdain  to  listen 
to  the  prayers  of  their  slaves,  and  we  are  asked, 
forsooth,  to  shut  our  ears  to  the  petitions  of  our 
wives ! 

"  I  have  shown  that  women  have  now  done  no  new 
thing.  I  will  go  on  and  prove  that  they  ask  no 
unreasonable  thing.  It  is  true  that  good  laws  should 
not  be  rashly  repealed ;  but  we  must  not  forget  that 
Rome  existed  for  centuries  without  this  one,  and 
that  Roman  matrons  established  their  high  char- 
acter, about  which  Cato  is  so  solicitous,  during  that 
period,  the  return  of  which  he  now  seems  to  think 
would  be  subversive  of  every  thing  good.  This  law 
served  well  in  a  time  of  trial ;  but  that  has  passed, 
and  we  are  enjoying  the  return  of  plenty.  Shall  our 
matrons  be  the  only  ones  who  may  not  feel  the 
improvement  that  has  followed  a  successful  war? 
Shall  our  children,  and  we  ourselves,  wear  purple, 
and  shall  it  be  interdicted  to  our  wives?  Elegances 
of  appearance  and  ornaments  and  dress  are  the 
women's  badges  of  distinction  ;  in  them  they  delight 
and  glory,  and  our  ancestors. called  them  the  women's 
world.  Still,  they  desire  to  be  under  control  of 
those  who  are  bound  to  them  by  the  bonds  of  love, 
not  by  stern  law,  in  these  matters.  The  consul  just 
now  used  invidious  terms,  calling  this  a  female 
'secession,'  as  though  our  matrons  were  about  to 
seize  the  Sacred  Mount  or  the  Aventine,  as  the 


15  THE  NEW  PUSHES  THE  OLD. 

plebeians  did  of  yore ;  but  their  feeble  nature  is 
incapable  of  such  a  thing.  They  must  necessarily 
submit  to  what  you  think  proper,  and  the  greater 
your  power  the  more  moderation -should  you  use  in 
exercising  it."  Thus,  day  after  day,  the  men  spoke 
and  the  women  poured  out  to  protest,  until  even 
stern  and  inflexible  Cato  gave  way,  and  women  were 
declared  free  from  the  restrictions  of  the  Oppian  law. 
Cato  and  Scipio  represented  the  two  forces  that 
were  at  this  time  working  in  society,  the  one  op- 
posing the  entrance  of  the  Grecian  influence,  and  the 
other  encouraging  the  refinement  in  manners  and 
modes  of  living  that  came  with  it,  even  encour- 
aging ostentation  and  the  lavish  use  of  money  for 
pleasures.  When  Scipio  was  making  his  arrange- 
ments to  go  to  Africa,  he  was  governor  of  Sicily, 
and  lived  in  luxury.  Cato,  then  but  thirty  years  old, 
had  been  sent  to  Sicily  to  investigate  his  proceed- 
ings, and  act  as  a  check  upon  him;  but  Scipio 
seems  to  have  been  little  influenced  by  the  young 
reformer,  telling  him  that  he  would  render  accounts 
of  his  actions,  not  of  the  money  he  spent.  Upon 
this  Cato  returned  to  Rome,  and  denounced  Scipio's 
prodigality,  his  love  of  Greek  literature  and  art,  his 
magnificence,  and  his  persistence  in  wasting  in  the 
gymnasium  or  in  the  pursuit  of  literature  time  which 
should  have  been  used  in  training  his  troops.  Join- 
ing Fabius,  he  urged  that  an  investigating  committee 
be  sent  to  look  into  the  matter,  but  it  returned 
simply  astonished  at  the  efficient  condition  of  the 
army,  and  orders  were  given  for  prompt  advance 
upon  Carthage. 


I$8  THE  NEW  PUSHES  THE   OLD. 

The  influences  coming  from  Greece  at  this  time 
were  not  all  the  best,  for  that  land  was  in  its  period 
of  decadence,  and  Cato  did  well  in  trying  to  protect 
his  countrymen  from  evil.  While  literature  in  Greece 
had  reached  its  highest  and  had  become  corrupt, 
there  had  been  none  in  Rome  during  the  five  centu- 
ries of  its  history.  All  this  time,  too,  there  had  been 
but  one  public  holiday  and  a  single  circus  ;  but  dur- 
ing the  interval  between  the  first  and  second  Punic 
wars  a  demagogue  had  instituted  a  second  circus  and 
a  new  festival,  called  the  plebeian  games.  Other 
festivals  followed,  and  in  time  their  cost  became 
exceedingly  great,  and  their  influence  very  bad. 
Fights  of  gladiators  were  introduced  just  at  the  out- 
break of  the  first  Punic  war,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
funeral  of  D.  Junius  Brutus,  and  were  given  after- 
ward on  such  occasions,  because  it  was  believed  that 
the  manes,  the  spirits  of  the  departed,  loved  blood. 
Persons  began  to  leave  money  for  this  purpose  in 
their  wills,  and  by  degrees  a  fondness  for  the  fright- 
ful sport  increased,  for  the  Romans  had  no  leaning 
towards  the  ideal,  and  delighted  only  in  those  pur- 
suits which  appealed  to  their  coarse,  strong,  and,  in 
its  way,  pious  nature.  Humor  and  comedy  with 
them  became  burlesque,  sometimes  repulsive  in  its 
grotesqueness.  Dramatic  art  grew  up  during  this 
period.  We  have  seen  that  dramatic  exhibitions 
were  introduced  in  the  year  363,  from  Etruria,  at 
a  time  of  pestilence,  but  they  were  mere  panto- 
mimes.  Now  plays  began  to  be  written.  Trust- 
worthy history  begins  at  the  time  of  the  Punic  wars, 
-and  the  annals  of  Fabius  Pictor  commence  with  the 
year  216,  after  the  battle  of  Cannae. 


A   POWERFUL  MACEDONIAN. 


'59 


Rome  itself  was  changed  by  the  increased  wealth 
of  these  times.  The  streets  were  made  wider; 
temples  were  multiplied ;  and  aqueducts  were  built 
to  bring  water  from  distant  sources ;  the  same  Appius 
who  constructed  the  great  road  which  now  bears  his 
name,  having  built  the  first,  which,  however,  disap- 
peared long  ago.  Another,  forty-three  miles  in 
length,  was  paid  for  out  of  the  spoils  of  the  war 
with  Pyrrhus,  and  portions  of  it  still  remain.  With 
the  increase  of  wealth  and  luxury  came  also  im- 
provement in  language  and  in  its  use,  and  in  the  year 
254,  studies  in  law  were  formally  begun  in  a  school 
established  for  the  purpose. 


ACTORS'  MASKS. 


The  Romans  had  conquered  Italy  and  Carthage, 
and  the  next  step  was  to  make  them  masters  of  the 
East.  Philip  V.,  King  of  Macedon,  was,  as  we  have 
seen,  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  monarchs  of  that 
country.  His  treaty  with  Hannibal  after  the  battle 
of  Cannae,  involved  him  in  war  with  the  Romans, 
which  continued,  with  intermissions,  until  Scipio 
was  about  to  go  over  into  Africa.  Then  the  Romans 
were  glad  to  make  peace,  though  no  considerable 
results  followed  the  struggle,  and  it  had  indeed  been 
pursued  with  little  vigor  for  much  of  the  time.  By 
the  year  200,  Philip  had  been  able  to  establish  him- 
self in  Greece,  and  the  Romans  were  somewhat 


l6o  THE  NEW  PUSHES  THE  OLD. 

rested  from  the  war  with  Carthage.  The  peace  of 
205  had  been  considered  but  a  cessation  of  hostilities, 
and  both  people  were  therefore  ready  for  a  new  war. 
There  were  pretexts  enough.  Philip  had  made  an 
alliance  with  Antiochus  the  Great,  of  Syria,  against 
Ptolemy  Epiphanes,  of  Egypt,  who  applied  to  Rome 
for  assistance  ;  and  he  had  sent  aid  to  soldiers  to  help 
Hannibal,  who  had  fought  at  the  battle  of  Zama. 
Besides  this  he  had  attempted  to  establish  his 
supremacy  in  the  yEgean  Sea  at  the  expense  of  the 
people  of  Rhodes,  allies  of  Rome,  who  were  assisted 
by  Attalus,  King  of  Pergamus,  likewise  in  league  with 
Rome. 

The  senate  proposed  that  war  should  be  declared 
against  Philip,  but  the  people  longed  for  rest  after 
their  previous  struggles,  and  were  only  persuaded  to 
consent  by  being  told  that  if  Philip,  then  at  the 
pitch  of  his  greatness,  were  not  checked,  he  would 
follow  the  example  of  Hannibal,  as  he  had  been 
urged  to  follow  that  of  Pyrrhus.  No  great  progress 
was  made  in  the  war  until  the  command  of  the 
Roman  army  in  Greece  was  taken  by  a  young  man 
of  high  family  and  noble  nature,  well  acquainted 
with  Greek  culture,  in  the  year  197.  Flamininus,  for 
this  was  the  name  of  the  new  commander,  met  the 
army  of  Philip  that  year  on  a  certain  morning  when, 
after  a  rain,  thick  clouds  darkened  the  plain  on  which 
they  were.  The  armies  were  separated  by  low  hills 
known  as  the  Dog-heads  (Cynocephalae),  and  when 
at  last  the  sun  burst  out  it  showed  the  Romans  and 
Macedonians  struggling  on  the  uneven  ground  with 
varying  success.  The  Macedonians  were  finally  de- 


REJOICINGS  AT  CORINTH.  l6l 

feated,  with  the  loss  of  eight  thousand  slain  and  five 
thousand  prisoners.  In  196  peace  was  obtained  by 
Philip,  who  agreed  to  withdraw  from  Greece,  to  give 
up  his  fleet,  and  to  pay  a  thousand  talents  for  the 
expenses  of  the  war. 

At  the  Isthmian  games,  the  following  summer, 
Flamininus  caused  a  trumpet  to  command  silence, 
and  a  crier  to  proclaim  that  the  Roman  senate  and 
he,  the  proconsular  general,  having  vanquished  Philip, 
restored  to  the  Grecians  their  lands,  laws,  and  liber- 
ties, remitting  all  impositions  upon  them  and  with- 
drawing all  garrisons.  So  astonished  were  the  people 
at  the  good  news  that  they  could  scarcely  believe  it, 
and  asked  that  it  might  be  repeated.  This  the  crier 
did,  and  a  shout  rose  from  the  people  (who  all  stood 
up)  that  was  heard  from  Corinth  to  the  sea,  and 
there  was  no  further  thought  of  the  entertainment 
that  usually  engrossed  so  much  attention.  Plutarch 
says  gravely  that  the  disruption  of  the  air  was  so 
great  that  crows  accidentally  flying  over  the  race- 
course at  the  moment  fell  down  dead  into  it !  Night 
only  caused  the  people  to  leave  the  circus,  and  then 
they  went  home  to  carouse  together.  So  grateful 
were  they  that  they  freed  the  Romans  who  had  been 
captured  by  Hannibal  and  had  been  sold  to  them, 
and  when  Flamininus  returned  to  Rome  with  a  repu- 
tation second  only,  in  the  popular  esteem,  to  Scipio 
Africanus,  these  freed  slaves  followed  in  the  proces- 
sion on  the  occasion  of  his  triumph,  which  was  one 
of  the  most  magnificent,  and  lasted  three  days. 

Scarcely  had  Flamininus  left  Greece  before  the 
^Etolians,  who  claimed  that  the  victory  at  Cyno- 


1 62  THE  NEW  PUSHES  THE  OLD. 

cephalae  was  chiefly  due  to  their  prowess,  made  a  com- 
bination against  the  Romans,  and  engaged  Antiochus 
to  take  their  part.  This  monarch  had  occupied  Asia 
Minor  previously,  and  would  have  passed  into  Greece 
but  for  Flamininus.  This  was  while  Hannibal  was 
at  the  court  of  Antiochus.  The  Romans  declared 
war,  and  sent  an  army  into  Thessaly,  which  over- 
came the  Syrians  at  the  celebrated  pass  of  Thermopy- 
lae, on  the  spot  where  Leonidas  and  his  brave 
three  hundred  had  been  slaughtered  by  the  Persians 
two  hundred  and  eighty-nine  years  before  (B.C.  191). 
Lucius  Cornelius  Scipio,  brother  of  Africanus,  closed 
the  war  by  defeating  Antiochus  at  Magnesia,  in  Asia 
Minor,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Sipylus  (B.C.  190).  The 
Syrian  monarch  is  said  to  have  lost  fifty-three 
thousand  men,  while  but  four  hundred  of  the  Romans 
fell.  Antiochus  resigned  to  the  Romans  all  of  Asia 
west  of  the  Taurus  mountains,  agreed  to  pay  them 
fifteen  thousand  talents,  and  to  surrender  Hannibal. 
The  great  Carthaginian,  however,  escaped  to  the 
court  of  Prusias,  King  of  Bithynia,  where,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  he  took  his  own  life.  Scipio  carried 
immense  booty  to  Rome,  where  he  celebrated  a 
splendid  triumph,  and,  in  imitation  of  his  brother 
Africanus,  added  the  name  Asiaticus  to  his  others. 

The  succeeding  year,  the  ^Etolians  were  severely 
punished,  their  land  was  ravaged,  and  they  were  re- 
quired to  accept  peace  upon  humiliating  terms. 
Never  again  were  they  to  make  war  without  the  con- 
sent of  Rome,  whose  supremacy  they  acknowledged, 
and  to  which  they  paid  an  indemnity  of  five  hundred 
talents.  At  this  time  the  most  famous  hero  of  later 


REVIVAL  OF  THE  ACHMAtf  LEAGUE.         163 

Grecian  history  comes  before  us  indirectly,  just  as 
the  greatness  of  his  country  was  sinking  from  sight 
forever.  Philopcemen,  who  was  born  at  Megalopolis 
in  Arcadia  (not  far  from  the  spot  from  which  old 
Evander  started  for  Italy),  during  the  first  Punic  war, 
just  before  Hamilcar  appeared  upon  the  scene, 
raised  himself  to  fame,  first  by  improving  the  armor 
and  drill  of  the  Achaean  soldiers,  when  he  became 
chief  of  the  ancient  league,  and  then  by  his  prowess 
at  the  battle  of  Mantinea,  in  the  year  207,  when  Sparta 
was  defeated.  He  revived  the  ancient  league,  which 
had  been  dormant  during  the  Macedonian  suprem- 
acy; but  in  1 88,  he  took  fierce  revenge  upon  Sparta, 
for  which  he  was  called  to  account  by  the  Romans; 
and  five  years  later,  in  183,  he  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  Messenians,  who  had  broken  from  the  league, 
and  was  put  to  death  by  poison.  It  was  in  the  same 
year  that  both  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  the  two  other 
great  soldiers  of  the  day  died.* 

Philip  V.  of  Macedon  followed  these  warriors  to 
the  grave  five  years  later,  after  having  begun  to 
prepare  to  renew  the  war  with  Rome.  His  son 
Perseus  continued  these  preparations,  but  war  did 
not  actually  break  out  until  171,  and  then  it  was 
continued  for  three  years  without  decisive  result. 
In  168  the  Romans  met  the  army  of  Perseus  at 
Pydna,  in  Macedonia,  north  of  Mount  Olympus,  on 
the  22d  June,f  and  utterly  defeated  it.  Perseus  was 

*  See  the  Student's  Merivale,  ch.  xxv.,  for  remarks  about  these 
three  warriors. 

f  This  date  is  proved  by  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  which  occurred  at  the 
time.  It  had  been  foretold  by  a  scientific  Roman  so  that  the  army 
should  not  see  in  it  a  bad  omen. 


164  THE  NEW  PUSHES  THE   OLD. 

afterward  taken  prisoner  and  died  at  Alba.  From 
the  battle  of  Pydna  the  great  historian  Polybius,  who 
was  a  native  of  Megalopolis,  dates  the  complete 
establishment  of  the  universal  empire  of  Rome, 
since  after  that  no  civilized  state  ever  confronted  her 
on  an  equal  footing,  and  all  the  struggles  in  which  she 
engaged  were  rebellions  or  wars  with  "  barbarians  " 
outside  of  the  influence  of  Greek  or  Roman  civiliza- 
tion, and  since  all  the  world  recognized  the  senate 
as  the  tribunal  of  last  resort  in  differences  between 
nations ;  the  acquisition  of  Roman  language  and 
manners  being  henceforth  among  the  necessary  ac- 
complishments of  princes.  Rome  had  never  before 
seen  so  grand  a  triumph  as  that  celebrated  by 
-££milius  Paulus,  the  conqueror  of  Macedonia,  after 
his  return.  Plutarch  gives  an  elaborate  account  of  it. 
In  pursuance  of  its  policy  of  conquest  a  thousand 
of  the  noblest  citizens  of  Achaea  were  sent  to  Italy  to 
meet  charges  preferred  against  them.  Among  them 
was  the  historian  Polybius,  who  became  well  ac- 
quainted with  Scipio  ^Emilianus,  son  by  adoption 
of  a  son  of  the  conqueror  of  Hannibal.  For  seven- 
teen years  these  exiles  were  detained,  their  numbers 
constantly  decreasing,  until  at  last  even  the  severe 
Cato  was  led  to  intercede  for  them  and  they  were 
returned  to  their  homes.  Exasperated  by  their 
treatment  they  were  ready  for  any  desperate  en- 
terprise against  their  conquerors,  but  Polybius 
endeavored  to  restrain  them.  The  historian  went 
to  Carthage,  however,  and  while  he  was  away  dis- 
putes were  stirred  up  which  gave  Rome  an  excuse 
for  interfering.  Corinth  was  taken  with  circum- 
stances of  barbarous  cruelty,  and  plundered  of  its 


THE  FALL   OF  GREECE.  165 

priceless  works  of  art,  the  rough  and  ignorant 
Roman  commander  sending  them  to  Italy,  after 
making  the  contractors  agree  to  replace  any  that 
might  be  lost  with  others  of  equal  value !  With 
Corinth  fell  the  liberties  of  Greece ;  a  Roman  prov- 
ince took  the  place  of  the  state  that  for  six  centuries 
had  been  the  home  of  art  and  eloquence,  the  intel- 
lectual sovereign  of  antiquity  ;  but  though  overcome 
and  despoiled  she  became  the  guide  and  teacher  of 
her  conqueror. 

When  Carthage  had  regained  some  of  its  lost 
riches  and  population,  Rome  again  became  jealous  of 
her  former  rival,  and  Cato  gave  voice  to  the  feeling 
that  she  ought  to  be  destroyed.  One  day  in  the 
senate  he  drew  from  his  toga  a  bunch  of  early  figs, 
and,  throwing  them  on  the  floor,  exclaimed  :  "  Those 
figs  were  gathered  but  three  days  ago  in  Carthage ; 
so  close  is  our  enemy  to  our  walls  !  "  After  that, 
whenever  he  expressed  himself  on  this  subject,  or 
any  other,  in  the  senate,  he  closed  with  the  words 
"  Delenda  est  Carthago" — "  Carthage  ought  to  be 
destroyed  !  "  Internal  struggles  gave  Rome  at  last 
an  opportunity  to  interfere,  and  in  149  a  third  Punic 
war  was  begun,  which  closed  in  146  with  the  utter 
destruction  of  Carthage.  The  city  was  taken  by 
assault,  the  inhabitants  fighting  with  desperation 
from  street  to  street.  Scipio  yEmflianus,  who  com- 
manded in  this  war,  was  now  called  also  Africanus, 
like  his  ancestor  by  adoption. 

For  years  the  tranquillity  of  Spain,  which  lasted 
from  179  to  153,  had  been  disturbed  by  wars,  and  it 
was  not  until  Scipio  was  sent  thither  that  peace  was 
restored.  That  warrior  first  put  his  forces  into  an 


1 66  THE  NEW  PUSHES  THE   OLD. 

effective  condition,  and  then  laid  seige  to  the  city  of 
Numantia,  situated  on  an  elevation  and  well  fortified. 
The  citizens  defended  themselves  with  the  greatest 
bravery,  and  showed  wonderful  endurance,  but  were 
at  last  obliged  to  surrender,  and  the  town  was  levelled 
to  the  ground,  most  of  the  inhabitants  being  sold  as 
slaves. 

The  great  increase  in  slaves,  and  the  devastation 
caused  by  long  and  exhaustive  wars,  had  brought 
about  in  Sicily  a  servile  insurrection,  before  the 
Numantians  had  been  conquered.  It  is  said  that  the 
number  of  those  combined  against  their  Roman 
masters  reached  the  sum  of  two  hundred  thou- 
sand. In  132,  the  strongholds  of  the  insurgents 
were  captured  by  a  consular  army,  and  peace 
restored.  The  barbarism  of  Roman  slavery  had 
nowhere  reached  such  extremes  as  in  Sicily. 
Freedmen  who  had  cultivated  the  fields  were  there 
replaced  by  slaves,  who  were  ill-fed  and  poorly  cared 
for.  Some  worked  in  chains,  and  all  were  treated 
with  indescribable  brutality.  They  finally  became 
bandits  in  despair,  and  efforts  at  repression  of  their 
disorders  led  to  the  open  and  fearful  war.  The  same 
year  that  this  war  ended,  the  last  king  of  Pergamos 
died,  leaving  his  kingdom  and  treasures  to  the 
Roman  people,  as  he  had  no  children,  and  Pergamos 
became  the  "  province "  of  Asia.  Besides  this, 
Rome  had  the  provinces  of  Sicily,  Sardinia  and  Cor- 
sica, Spain,  Gallia  Cisalpina,  Macedonia,  Illyricum, 
Southern  Greece  (Achaea),  and  Africa,  to  which  was 
soon  to  be  added  the  southern  portion  of  Gaul  over 
the  Alps,  between  those  mountains  and  the  Pyre- 
nees  called  Provincia  Gallia  (Provence). 


XII. 

A  FUTILE  EFFORT  AT  REFORM. 

ONE  day  when  the  conqueror  of  Carthage,  Scipio 
Africanus,  was  feasting  with  other  senators  at  the 
Capitol,  the  veteran  patrician  was  asked  by  the 
friends  about  him  to  give  his  daughter  Cornelia  to 
a  young  man  of  the  plebeian  family  of  Sempronia, 
Tiberius  Gracchus  by  name.  This  young  man  was 
then  about  twenty-five  years  old ;  he  had  travelled 
and  fought  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  and  had 
obtained  a  high  reputation  for  manliness.  Just  at  this 
time  he  had  put  Africanus  under  obligations  to  him 
by  defending  him  from  attacks  in  public  life,  and  the 
old  commander  readily  agreed  to  the  request  of  his 
friends.  When  he  returned  to  his  home  and  told 
his  wife  that  he  had  given  away  their  daughter,  she 
upbraided  him  for  his  rashness ;  but  when  she  heard 
the  name  of  the  fortunate  man,  she  said  that 
Gracchus  was  the  only  person  worthy  of  the  gift. 
The  mother's  opinion  proved  to  be  correct.  The 
young  people  lived  together  in  happiness,  and  Cor- 
nelia became  the  mother  of  three  children,  who  car- 
ried down  the  good  traits  of  their  parents.  One  of 
these  was  a  daughter  named,  like  her  mother,  Cor- 
nelia, who  became  the  wife  of  Scipio  Africanus  the 


1 68  A   FUTILE  EFFORT  AT  REFORM. 

younger,  and  the  others  were  her  two  brothers. 
Tiberius  and  Caius,  who  are  known  as  the  Gracchi. 
Tiberius  Gracchus  lived  to  be  over  fifty  years  old, 
and  won  still  greater  laurels  in  war  and  peace  at 
home  and  in  foreign  lands.  Cicero  says  that  he  did 
a  great  service  to  the  state  by  gathering  together  on 
the  Esquiline  the  freedmen  who  had  spread  themselves 
throughout  the  tribes,  and  restricting  their  franchise 
(B.C.  169).  Thus,  Cicero  thought,  he  succeeded  for 
a  time  in  checking  the  ruin  of  the  republic.* 

There  was  sad  need  of  some  movement  to  correct 
abuses  that  had  grown  up  in  Rome,  and  the  men 
destined  to  stand  forth  as  reformers  were  the  two 
Gracchi,  sons  of  Cornelia  and  Tiberius.  Their  father 
did  not  live  to  complete  their  education,  but  their 
mother,  though  courted  by  great  men,  and  by  at 
least  one  king,  refused  to  marry  again,  and  gave  up 
her  time  to  educating  her  sons,  whom  she  proudly 
called  her  "jewels"  when  the  Roman  matrons, 
relieved  from  the  restrictions  of  the  Oppian  law, 
boastfully  showed  her  the  rich  ornaments  of  gold 
and  precious  stones  that  they  adorned  themselves 
with.  The  brothers  had  eminent  Greeks  to  give 
them  instruction,  and  grew  up  wise,  able  and  elo- 
quent, though  each  exhibited  his  wisdom  and  ability 
in  a  different  way. 

Tiberius,  who  was  nine  years  older  than  his 
brother,  came  first  into  public  life.  He  went  to 
Africa  with  his  brother-in-law,  when  the  younger 
Africanus  completed  the  destruction  of  Carthage, 
and  afterward  he  took  part  in  the  wars  in  Spain.  It 

*  The  freedmen  had  been  confined  to  the  four  city  tribes  in  220  B.C. 


TIBERIUS  GRACCHUS.  169 

is  said  that,  as  he  went  through  Etruria  on  his  way 
to  Spain,  he  noticed  that  the  fields  were  cultivated 
by  foreign  slaves,  working  in  clanking  chains,  in- 
stead of  by  freemen  ;  and  that  because  the  rich  had 
taken  possession  of  great  ranges  of  territory,  the 
poor  Romans  had  not  even  a  clod  to  call  their  own, 
though  they  had  fought  the  battles  by  which  the 
land  had  been  made  secure.  The  sight  of  so  much 
distress  in  a  fertile  country  lying  waste  affected 
Tiberius  very  deeply,  and  when  he  returned  to 
Rome,  he  bethought  himself  that  it  was  in  opposi, 
tion  to  law  that  the  rich  controlled  such  vast  estates. 
He  remembered  that  the  Licinian  Rogation,  which 
became  a  law  more  than  two  hundred  years  before 
this  time,  forbade  any  man  having  such  large  tracts 
in  his  possession,  and  thought  that  so  beneficent  a 
law  should  continue  to  be  respected.  He  told  the 
people  of  Rome  that  the  wild  beasts  had  their 
dens  and  caves,  while  the  men  who  had  fought  and  ex- 
posed their  lives  for  Italy  enjoyed  in  it  nothing  more 
than  light  and  air,  and  were  obliged  to  wander  about 
with  their  wives  and  little  ones,  their  commanders 
mocking  them  by  calling  upon  them  to  fight  "  for 
their  tombs  and  the  temples  of  their  gods," — things 
that  they  never  possessed  nor  could  hope  to  have 
any  interest  in.  "  Not  one  among  many,  many 
Romans,"  said  he,  "  has  a  family  altar  or  an  ances- 
tral tomb.  They  have  fought  to  maintain  the 
luxury  of  the  great,  and  they  are  called  in  bitter 
irony  the  '  masters  of  the  world/  while  they  do  not 
possess  a  clod  of  earth  that  they  may  call  their 
own ! " 


A   FUTILE  EFFORT  AT  REFORM. 

It  was  a  noble  patriotism  that  filled  the  heart 
of  Tiberius,  but  it  was  not  easy  to  carry  out  a  reform 
like  the  one  he  contemplated.  It  may  not  have 
appeared  difficult  to  re-enact  the  old  law,  but  we 
must  remember  that,  during  two  centuries  of  its 
neglect,  generations  of  men  had  peaceably  possessed 
the  great  estates,  of  which  its  enforcement  would 
deprive  them  all  at  once.  Was  it  to  be  supposed 
that  they  would  quietly  permit  this  to  be-  done  ? 
Was  it  just  to  deprive  men  of  possessions  that  they 
had  received  from  their  parents  and  grandparents 
without  protest  on  the  part  of  the  nation  ?  Cornelia 
urged  Tiberius  to  do  some  great  work  for  the  state, 
telling  him  that  she  was  called  the  "daughter  of 
Scipio,"  while  she  wished  to  be  known  as  the  "  mother 
of  the  Gracchi."  The  war  in  Sicily  emphasized  the 
troubles  that  Tiberius  wished  to  put  an  end  to,  and 
in  the  midst  of  it  he  was  elected  one  of  the  tribunes, 
the  people  hoping  something  from  him,  and  putting 
up  placards  all  over  the  city  calling  upon  him  to  take 
their  part. 

The  people  seemed  to  feel  sure  that  Gracchus  was 
intending  to  do  something  for  them,  and  they 
eagerly  came  together  and  voted  for  him,  and  when 
he  was  elected,  they  crowded  into  the  city  from  all 
the  regions  about  to  vote  in  favor  of  the  re-estab- 
lishment of  the  Licinian  laws,  with  some  alterations. 
They  were  successful,  much  to  the  disgust  of  the 
aristocrats,*  who  hated  Gracchus,  and  thenceforth 

*  Aristocrat  is  a  word  of  Greek  origin,  and  means  one  of  a  govern- 
ing body  composed  of  the  best  men  (aristos,  best)  in  the  state.  The 
aristocrats  came  to  ba  called  also  dptim&tes,  from  oftirnus^  the  correr 
spending  Latin  word  for  best, 


MURDER  OF  GRACCHUS.  I /I 

plotted  to  overthrow  him  and  his  power.  For 
a  while,  the  lands  that  had  been  wrongfully  occupied 
by  the  rich  were  taken  by  a  commission  and  returned 
to  the  government. 

When  Attalus,  the  erratic  king  of  Pergamus,  left 
his  estates  to  Rome,  Gracchus  had  an  opportunity 
to  perform  an  act  of  justice,  by  refunding  to  the 
rich  the  outlays  they  had  made  on  the  lands  of 
which 'they  had  been  deprived.  This  would  have 
been  politic  as  well  as  just,  but  Gracchus  did  not  see 
his  opportunity.  He  proposed,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  divide  the  new  wealth  among  the  plebeians,  to 
enable  them  to  buy  implements  and  cattle  for  the 
estates  they  had  acquired. 

It  was  easy  at  that  excited  time  to  make  false  ac- 
cusations against  public  men,  and  to  cause  the 
populace  to  act  upon  them,  and,  accordingly,  the 
aristocrats  now  stirred  up  the  people  to  believe  that 
Gracchus  was  aspiring  to  the  power  of  king,  which, 
they  were  reminded,  had  been  forever  abolished  ages 
before.  No  opportunity  was  given  him  to  explain 
his  intentions.  A  great  mob  was  raised  and  a  street 
fight  precipitated,  in  the  midst  of  which  three  hun- 
dred persons  were  killed  with  sticks  and  stones  and 
pieces  of  benches.  Among  them  was  Gracchus  him- 
self, who  thus  died  a  martyr  to  his  patriotic  plans 
for  the  Roman  republic.* 

*  The  course  of  Gracchus  was  not  understood  at  the  time  by  all  good 
citizens  ;  and  even  for  ages  after  he  was  considered  a  designing  dema- 
gogue. It  was  not  until  the  great  Niebuhr,  to  whom  we  owe  so  much 
in  Roman  history,  explained  fully  the  nature  of  the  agrarian  laws 
which  Gracchus  passed,  that  the  world  accepted  him  for  the  hero  and 
honest  patriot  that  be  was, 


1/2  A  FUTILE  EFFORT  AT  REFORM. 

Caius  Gracchus  was  in  Spain  at  the  time  of  his 
brother's  murder,  and  Scipio,  his  brother-in-law,  was 
there  also.  So  little  did  Scipio  understand  Tiberius, 
that  when  he  heard  of  his  death  he  quoted  the 
words  of  Minerva  to  Mercury,  which  he  remembered 
to  have  read  in  his  Homer,  "  So  perish  he  who  doth 
the  same  again ! "  The  next  year  brother  and 
brother-in-law  returned  from  Spain,  but  Caius  did 
not  seem  to  care  to  enter  political  life,  and  as  he 
lived  in  quiet  for  some  years,  it  was  thought  that  he 
disapproved  his  brother's  laws.  Little  did  the  pub- 
lic dream  of  what  was  to  come. 

,  Meantime  Scipio  became  the  acknowledged  leader 
of  the  optimates,  and  in  order  to  keep  the  obnoxious 
law  from  being  enforced,  proposed  to  take  it  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  commission  and  give  it  to  the 
senate.  His  proposition  was  vigorously  opposed  in 
the  forum,  and  when  he  retired  to  his  home  to  pre- 
pare a  speech  to  be  delivered  on  the  subject,  a  num- 
ber of  friends  thought  it  necessary  to  accompany 
him  as  protectors.  The  next  morning  the  city  was 
startled  by  the  news  that  he  was  dead.  His  speech 
was  never  even  composed.  No  effort  was  made  to 
discover  his  murderer,  though  one  Caius  Papirius 
Carbo,  a  tribune,  leader  of  the  opposing  party,  was 
generally  thought  to  have  been  the  guilty  one. 

The  eloquence  of  young  Gracchus  proved  greater 
than  that  of  any  other  citizen,  and  by  it  he  ingrati- 
ated himself  with  the  people  to  such  an  extent,  that 
in  the  year  123  B.C.  they  elected  him  one  of  their 
tribunes.  Though  the  aristocrats  managed  to  have 
his  name  placed  fourth  on  the  list,  his  force  and 


ACTIVITY  OF  CAWS  GACCHUS. 


173 


eloquence  made  him  really  first  in  all  public  labors, 
and  he  proceeded  to  use  his  influence  to  further  his 
brother's  favorite  projects.  He  was  impetuous  in  his 
oratory.  As  he  spoke,  he  walked  from  side  to  side 
of  the  rostra,  and  pulled  his  toga  from  his  shoulder  as 
he  became  warm  in  his  delivery.  His  powerful  voice 
filled  the  forum,  and  stirred  the 
hearts  of  his  hearers,  who  felt 
that  his  persuasive  words  came 
from  an  honest  heart. 

The  optimates  were  of  course 
offended  by  the  acts  of  the  new 
tribune,  who  abridged  the  power 
of  the  senate,  and  in  all  ways 
showed  an  intention  of  working 
for  the  people.  He  was  exceed- 
ingly active  in  works  of  public 
benefit,  building  roads  and 
bridges,  erecting  mile-stones 
along  the  principal  routes,  ex- 
tending to  the  Italians  the  right 
to  vote,  and  alleviating  the  dis- 
tressing poverty  of  the  lower 
orders  by  directing  that  grain 
should  be  sold  to  them  at  low 
rates.  The  laws  under  which  he  accomplished  these 
beneficent  changes  are  known,  from  the  family  to 
which  the  Gracchi  belonged,  as  the  Sempronian 
Laws.  In  carrying  out  the  necessary  legislation  and 
in  executing  the  laws,  Caius  labored  himself  with 
great  assiduity,  and  his  activity  afforded  his  enemies 
the  opportunity  to  say  falsely  that  he  made  some 
private  gain  from  them. 


A  ROMAN    MILE-STUNK. 


174  A  FUTILE  EFFORT  AT  REFORM. 

The  optimates  soon  saw  that  the  labors  of  Grac- 
chus had  drawn  the  people  close  to  him,  and  they 
determined  to  weaken  his  influence  by  indirect 
means,  rather  than  venture  to  make  any  immediate 
display  of  opposition.  They  according  adopted  the 
sagacious  policy  of  making  it  appear  that  they  wished 
to  do  more  for  the  people  than  their  own  champion 
proposed.  They  allowed  a  rich  and  eloquent  dema- 
gogue, Marcus  Livius  Drusus,  to  act  for  them,  and 
he  deceived  the  people  by  proposing  measures  that 
appeared  more  democratic  than  those  of  Gracchus, 
whose  power  over  the  people  was  thus  somewhat 
undermined.  The  next  step  was  then  taken.  In 
the  midst  of  an  election  a  tumult  was  excited,  and 
Gracchus  was  obliged  to  flee,  over  the  wooden  bridge, 
to  the  Grove  of  the  Furies.  Death  was  his  only  de- 
liverance. The  optimates  tried  to  make  it  out  that 
he  had  been  an  infamous  man,  but  the  common  peo- 
ple afterward  loved  both  the  brothers  and  esteemed 
them  as  great  benefactors  who  had  died  for  them. 

The  fall  of  the  Gracchi. left  the  people  without  a 
leader,  and  the  optimates  easily  kept  possession  of 
the  government,  though  they  did  not  yet  feel  dis- 
posed to  proceed  at  once  to  carry  out  their  own 
wishes  fully,  for  fear  that  they  might  sting  the  popu- 
lares  beyond  endurance.  They  stopped  the  assign- 
ments of  lands,  however,  allowing  those  who  had 
occupied  large  tracts  to  keep  them,  and  thus  the 
desolation  and  retrogression  which  had  so  deeply 
moved  Gracchus  continued  and  increased  even  more 
rapidly  than  it  had  in  his  time.  The  state  fell  into 
a  condition  of  corruption  in  every  department,  and 


MARlUS  AMD  SULLA.  •  175 

office  was  looked  upon  simply  as  a  means  of  acquir- 
ing wealth,  not  as  something  to  be  held  as  a  trust  for 
the  good  of  the  governed.  The  nation  suffered  also 
from  servile  insurrections ;  the  seas  were  overrun 
with  pirates ;  the  rich  plunged  into  vice  ;  the  poor 
were  pushed  down  to  deeper  depths  of  poverty ; 
judicial  decisions  were  sold  for  money ;  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  provinces  were  looked  upon  by  the 
nobles  as  fit  subjects  for  plunder,  and  the  governors 
obtained  their  positions  by  purchase ;  everywhere 
ruin  stared  the  commonwealth  in  the  face,  though 
there  seems  to  have  been  no  one  with  perceptions 
clear  enough  to  perceive  the  trend  of  affairs. 

In  this  degenerate  time  there  arose  two  men  of 
the  most  diverse  traits  and  descent,  whose  lives,  run- 
ning parallel  for  many  years,  furnish  at  once  instruc- 
tive studies  and  involve  graphic  pictures  of  public 
affairs.  The  elder  of  them  was  with  Scipio  when 
Numantia  fell  into  his  hands,  and  with  Jugurtha,  a 
Numidian  prince,  won  distinction  by  his  valor  on 
that  occasion.  Caius  Marius  was  the  name  of  this 
man,  and  he  belonged  to  the  commons.  He  was 
twenty-three  years  of  age,  and  had  risen  from  the 
low  condition  of  a  peasant  to  one  of  prominence  in 
public  affairs.  Fifteen  years  after  the  fall  of  Nu- 
mantia we  find  him  a  tribune  of  the  people,  standing 
for  purity  in  the  elections,  against  the  opposition  of 
the  optimates.  Rough,  haughty,  and  undaunted,  he 
carried  his  measures  and  waited  for  the  gathering 
storm  to  furnish  him  more  enlarged  opportunties  for 
the  exercise  of  his  strength  and  ambition. 

The  opponent  and  final  conqueror  of  this  com- 


A  FUTILE  EFFORT  AT  REFORM. 

moner  was  but  four  years  of  age  when  Numantia  fell, 
and  came  into  public  life  later  than  Marius.  Lucius 
Cornelius  Sulla  was  an  optimate  of  illustrious  an- 
cestry and  hereditary  wealth,  a  student  of  the  litera- 
ture and  art  of  Greece  and  his  native  land,  and  he 
united  in  his  person  all  the  vices  as  well  as  accom- 
plishments that  Cato  had  been  accustomed  to  de- 
nounce with  the  utmost  vigor. 

Marius  and  Sulla,  the  plebeian  and  the  optimate, 
the  man  without  education  of  the  schools,  and  the 
master  of  classic  culture,  were  brought  together  in 
Africa  in  the  year  107.  Numidia  had  long  been  an 
ally  of  Rome,  but  upon  the  death  of  one  of  its  kings, 
Jugurtha,  who  had  gained  confidence  in  himself  dur- 
ing the  Numantian  campaign,  attempted  to  gain 
control  of  the  government.  Rome  interfered,  but  so 
accessible  were  public  men  to  bribes,  that  Jugurtha 
obtained  from  the  senate  a  decree  dividing  the 
country  between  him  and  the  rightful  claimant  of 
the  throne.  Not  contented  with  this,  he  attempted 
to  conquer  his  rival  and  obtain  the  undivided  sway. 
This  action  aroused  the  Roman  people,  who  were 
less  corrupt  than  their  senate,  and  they  forced  their 
rulers  to  interfere.  War  was  declared,  but  the  first 
commander  was  corrupted  by  African  gold,  and  the 
struggle  was  intermitted.  Jugurtha  was  called  to 
Rome,  with  promise  of  safety,  to  testify  against  the 
officer  who  had  been  bribed,  and  remained  there 
awhile,  until  he  grew  bold  enough  to  assassinate  one 
of  his  enemies,  when  he  was  ordered  to  leave  Italy. 
As  he  left,  he  is  said  to  have  exclaimed  *  :  "  A  city 

*  "  Urbem  venalem,  et  mature perituram,  si  emptorem  invenerit."— 
Sallust's  "  Jugurtha,"  chapter  35. 


1 78  A   FUTILE  EFFORT  AT  REFORM. 

for  sale,  ready  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  first  bid- 
der !  "  These  memorable  words,  whether  really  ut- 
tered by  the  Numidian  or  not,  well  characterize  the 
state  of  affairs  at  this  corrupt  period. 

One  general  and  another  were  sent  to  oppose 
Jugurtha,  but  he  proved  too  much  for  them,  either 
corrupting  them  by  bribes  or  overcoming  them  by 
skill  of  arms.  The  spirit  of  the  Roman  people  was 
at  last  fully  aroused,  and  an  investigation  was  made, 
which  resulted  in  convicting  some  of  the  optimates, 
one  of  them  being  Opimius,  the  consul,  who  had 
been  cruelly  opposed  to  Caius  Gracchus.  A  general 
of  integrity  was  chosen  to  go  to  Africa.  He  was 
Caecilius  Metellus,  member  of  a  family  which  had 
come  into  prominence  during  the  first  Punic  war. 
Marius  was  with  him,  and  when  Jugurtha  saw  that 
men  of  this  high  character  were  opposed  to  him,  he 
began  to  despair.  While  the  struggle  progressed, 
Marius  remembered  that  a  witch  whom  he  had  had 
with  him  in  a  former  war  had  prophesied  that  the 
gods  would  help  him  in  advancing  himself,  and 
resolved  to  go  to  Rome  to  try  to  gain  the  consul- 
ship. Metellus  at  first  opposed  this  scheme,  but  was 
finally  persuaded  to  allow  Marius  to  leave.  Though 
but  few  days  elapsed  before  the  election,  after 
Marius  announced  himself  as  a  candidate,  he  was 
chosen  consul,  and  then  he  began  to  exult  over  the 
optimates  who  had  so  long  striven  to  keep  him  down. 
He  vaunted  his  lowly  birth,  declared  that  his  election 
was  a  victory  over  the  pusillanimity  and  license  of  the 
rich,  and  boldly  compared  his  warlike  prowess  with 
the  effeminacy  of  the  nobility,  whom  he  determined 
to  persecute  as  vigorously  as  they  had  pursued  him. 


THE  ROMAN  CAMP. 
Praetorian  Gate. 


179 


Principal  Gate  (Decumana). 

PLAN    OF    A    ROMAN    CAMP    IN    THE    TIME    OF    THE    REPUBLIC,    FOR 

16,800   INFANTRY   AND    I,8OO   HORSE.      (ABOUT   2.OOO 

FEET   SQUARE.) 


A.  Consul's  tent,  in  the  Praetorium. 

B.  Paymaster's  headquarters. 

C.  Tents  of  the  lieutenant-generals. 

D.  Tents  of  the  tribunes. 

F.  Veteran  cavalry. 

G.  Bodyguard  cavalry 
H.    Veteran  infantry. 
J.   Bodyguard  infantry. 


K.   Reserve  cavalry. 
L.  Reserve  infantry. 
M.  Legion  cavalry. 
O.  Triarii  (Third  line). 
Q.   Hastati  (Spearmen). 
R.  Allied  cavalry. 
S.  Allied  infantry. 


l8o  A   FUTILE  EFFORT  AT  REFORM. 

Marius  brought  the  Numidian  War  to  a  close 
by  obtaining  possession  of  Jugurtha  in  the  year  106, 
but  as  his  subordinate,  Sulla,  was  the  instrument  in 
actually  taking  the  king,  the  enemies  of  Marius 
claimed  for  the  young  aristocrat  the  credit  of  the  cap- 
ture, and  Sulla  irritated  his  senior  still  more  by  con- 
stantly wearing  a  ring  on  which  he  had  caused  to  be 
engraved  a  representation  of  the  surrender.  Marius 
did  not  immediately  return  to  Rome,  but  remained 
to  complete  the  subjugation  of  Numidia,  Sulla  the 
meantime  making  every  effort  to  ingratiate  himself 
with  the  soldiers,  sharing  every  labor,  and  sitting 
with  them  about  the  camp-fires  as  they  softened  the 
asperities  of  a  hard  life  by  telling  tales  of  past 
experience,  and  making  prophesies  of  the  future. 

Sulla  was  not  a  prepossessing  person.  His  blue 
eyes  were  keen  and  glaring ;  but  they  were  rendered 
forbidding  and  even  terrible  at  times  by  the  bad 
complexion  of  his  face,  which  was  covered  with  red 
blotches  that  told  the  story  of  his  debaucheries. 
"  Sulla  is  a  mulberry  sprinkled  over  with  meal,"  is 
the  expression  that  a  Greek  jester  is  said  to  have 
used  in  describing  his  frightful  face. 

It  was  the  first  of  January,  104,  when  Marius 
entered  Rome  in  triumph,  accompanied  by  evidences 
of  his  victories,  the  greatest  of  which  was  the  pitiful 
Numidian  king  himself,  who  followed  in  the  grand 
procession,  and  was  afterwards  ruthlessly  dropped 
into  the  horrible  Tulliarium,  or  Mamertine  prison, 
to  perish  by  starvation  in  the  watery  chill.  He  is 
said  to  have  exclaimed  as  he  touched  the  water  at 
the  bottom  of  the  prison,  "  Hercules  !  how  cold  are 
thy  baths !  " 


TERRIBLE  BARBARIANS.  l8l 

During  the  absence  of  Marius  in  Africa,  there  had 
come  over  Rome  the  shadow  of  a  greater  peril  than 
had  been  known  since  the  days  when  Hannibal's 
advance  had  made  the  strongest  hearts  quail.  The 
tumultuous  multitudes  who  inhabited  the  unexplored 
regions  of  Central  Europe,  the  Celts  and  Germans,* 
had  gathered  a  mass  comprising,  it  is  said,  more  than 
three  hundred  thousand  men  capable  of  fighting, 
besides  hosts  of  women  and  children,  and  were 
marching  with  irresistible  force  towards  the  Roman 
domains.  Nine  years  before  (B.C.  113),  these  bar- 
barians had  defeated  a  Roman  army  in  Noricum, 
north  of  Illyricum,  and  after  that  they  had  roamed 
at  will  through  Switzerland,  adding  to  their  numbers, 
and  ravaging  every  region,  until  at  last  they  had 
poured  over  into  the  plains  of  Gaul.  Year  after  year 
passed,  and  army  after  army  of  the  Romans  was  cut 
to  pieces  by  these  terrible  barbarians. 

As  Marius  entered  the  city  he  was  looked  upon  as 
the  only  one  who  could  stem  the  impetuous  human 
torrent  that  threatened  to  overwhelm  the  republic, 
for,  in  the  face  of  the  supreme  danger,  as  is  usual  in 
such  cases,  every  party  jealousy  was  forgotten.  The 
proud  commoner  accepted  the  command  with 
alacrity,  setting  out  for  distant  Gaul  immediately, 
and  taking  Sulla  as  one  of  his  subordinates.  After 
two  years  of  inconsequent  strategy,  he  overcame  the 
barbarians  at  a  spot  twelve  miles  distant  from  Agues 
Sextia  (the  Springs  of  Sextius,  the  modern  Aix,  in 

*  The  Cimbri,  who  formed  a  portion  of  this  invading  body,  had 
their  original  home  in  the  modern  peninsula  of  Jutland,  whence  came 
also  early  invaders  of  Britain,  and  they  were  probably  a  Celtic  people. 


1 82  A  FUTILE  EFFORT  AT  REFORM. 

Provence),  (B.C.  102).  He  collected  the  richest  of  the 
spoil  to  grace  a  triumph  that  he  expected  to  cele- 
brate, and  was  about  to  offer  the  remainder  to  the 
gods,  when,  just  as  he  stood  amid  the  encircling 
troops  in  a  purple  robe,  ready  to  touch  the  torch  to 
the  pile,  horsemen  dashed  into  the  space,  announ- 
cing that  the  Romans  had  for  the  fifth  time  elected 
him  consul !  The  village  of  Pourrieres  (Campi 
Putridi]  now  marks  the  spot,  and  the  rustics  of  the 
vicinity  still  celebrate  a  yearly  festival,  at  which  they 
burn  a  vast  heap  of  brushwood  on  the  summit  of  one 
of  their  hills,  as  they  shout  Victoire !  victoire !  in 
memory  of  Marius. 

During  this  period  Sulla  gained  renown  by  his 
valorous  deeds,  but  the  jealousy  that  had  begun  in 
Africa  increased,  and  in  103  or  102,  he  left  Marius  and 
joined  himself  to  his  colleague  Lutatius  Catulus, 
who  was  endeavoring  to  stem  another  torrent  of 
barbarians,  this  time  pouring  down  toward  Rome 
from  the  valley  of  the  Po.  When  Marius  reached 
home  after  his  victories  in  Gaul,  he  was  offered  a 
triumph,  but  refused  to  celebrate  it  until  he  had 
marched  to  the  help  of  Catulus,  who,  he  found,  was 
then  retreating  before  the  invaders  in  a  panic.  After 
the  arrival  of  Marius  the  flight  was  stopped,  and  the 
barbarians  totally  destroyed  at  a  battle  fought  near 
Vercellae.  Though  much  credit  for  this  wonderful 
victory  was  awarded  to  both  Catulus  and  Sulla,  the 
whole  honor  was  at  Rome  given  to  Marius,  who 
celebrated  a  triumph,  was  called  the  third  founder 
of  the  city  (as  Camillus  had  been  the  second),  and 
enjoyed  the  distinction  of  having  his  name  joined 


A   SERVILE  INSURRECTION.  183 

with  those  of  the  gods  when  offerings  and  libations 
were  made.  The  jealousy  of  Sulla  was  all  this  time 
growing  from  its  small  beginnings. 

While  Marius  and  Sulla  were  fighting  the  bar- 
barians there  had  been  a  second  insurrection  among 
the  slave  population  of  Italy,  and  it  was  not  distant 
Sicily  only  that  was  troubled  at  this  time,  for  though 
the  uprising  spread  to  that  island,  many  towns  of 
Campania  were  afflicted,  and  at  last  the  contagion 
had  affected  thousands  of  the  slaves,  who  arose  and 
struck  for  freedom.  The  outbreak  in  Campania  was 
repressed  in  103,  but  it  was  not  until  99  that  quiet 
was  restored  on  the  island,  and  then  it  was  by  the 
destruction  of  many  thousands  of  lives.  Large 
numbers  of  the  captives  were  taken  to  Rome  to  fight 
in  the  arena  with  wild  beasts,  but  they  disappointed 
their  sanguinary  masters  by  killing  each  other  instead 
in  the  amphitheatre.  The  condition  of  the  slaves 
after  this  was  worse  than  before.  They  were  de- 
prived of  all  arms,  and  even  the  spear  with  which 
the  herdsmen  were  wont  to  protect  themselves  from 
wild  beasts  was  taken  away. 

At  this  time  the  power  of  the  optimates  was 
rather  decreasing,  and  signs  of  promise  for  the  people 
appeared.  In  the  year  103,  a  law  had  been  passed 
which  took  from  the  senate  the  right  to  select  the 
chief  pontiffs,  and  it  had  been  given  to  the  popu- 
lares.*  An  agrarian  law  was  proposed  in  the  follow- 

*  This  important  law  was  passed  through  the  tribune  Cneius  Domi- 
tius  Ahenobarbus,  in  order  to  effect  his  own  election  as  pontiff  in  the 
place  of  his  father,  and  is  known  as  the  Domitfan  law.  The  people 
elected  him  afterward  out  of  gratitude.  The  chief  pontiff  was  an  influ- 
ential factor  in  politics,  as  he  pronounced  the  verdict  of  the  Sibylline 


1 84  A   FUTILE  EFFORT  AT  REFORM. 

ing  year,  a  speaker  on  the  subject  asserting  that  in 
the  entire  republic  there  were  not  two  thousand 
landholders,  so  rapidly  had  the  rich  been  able  to 
concentrate  in  themselves  the  ownership  of  the  land. 
The  powers  of  the  senate  were  still  further  restricted 
in  the  year  IOO,  by  a  law  intended  to  punish  magis- 
trates who  had  improperly  received  money,  and  to 
take  from  the  senators  the  right  to  try  such  offences.* 
At  the  same  time  the  right  of  citizenship  was 
offered  to  all  Italians  who  should  succeed  in  con- 
victing a  magistrate  of  peculation  or  extortion. 
Thus  it  seemed  as  though  the  reforms  aimed  at  by 
the  Gracchi  might  be  brought  about  if  only  the  man 
for  the  occasion  were  to  present  himself.  Marius 
presented  himself,  but  we  shall  find  that  he  mistook 
his  means,  and  only  cast  the  nation  down  into  deeper 
depths  of  misery.  His  star  was  at  its  highest  when 
he  celebrated  his  triumph,  and  it  would  have  been 
better  for  his  fame  had  he  died  at  that  time. 

books  on  public  questions,  and  gave  or  withheld  the  divine  approval 
from  public  acts,  besides  appointing  the  rites  and  sacrifices. 

*  The  exact  date  of  this  law  is  uncertain.  It  was  directed  against 
Quintus  Servilius  Caepio,  who,  when  the  barbarians  were  threatening 
Italy,  commanded  in  Gaul,  and  enriched  himself  by  the  wealth  of 
Tolosa,  which  he  took  (B.C.  106),  thus  giving  rise  to  the  proverb  "  He 
has  gold  of  Toulouse  " — ill-gotten  gains  (aurunt  Tolosanum  habet). 
He  was  also  held  responsible  for  a  terrible  defeat  at  Arausio  (Orange), 
where  eighty  thousand  Romans  and  forty  thousand  camp-followers 
perished,  October  6,  B.C.  105.  The  day  became  another  black  one 
in  the  Roman  calendar. 


XIII. 

SOCIAL  AND   CIVIL  WARS. 

MARIUS  was  brave  and  strong  and  able  to  cope 
with  any  in  the  rush  of  war,  but  he  knew  little  of  the 
arts  of  peace  and  the  science  of  government.  Sulla, 
his  enemy,  was  at  Rome,  living  in  quiet,  but  the  same 
fiery,  ambition  that  animated  Marius,  and  the  same 
jealousy  of  all  who  seemed  to  be  growing  in  popu  • 
larity,  burned  in  his  bosom  and  were  ready  to  burst 
out  at  any  time.  The  very  first  attempts  of  Marius 
at  government  ended  in  shame,  and  he  retired  from 
the  city  in  the  year  99.  He  had  supported  two 
rogations,  called  the  Appuleian  laws,  from  the 
demagogue  who  moved  them,  Lucius  Appuleius 
Saturninus,  and  they  were  carried  by  violence  and 
treachery.  They  enacted  that  the  lands  acquired 
from  the  barbarians  should  be  divided  among  both 
the  Italians  and  the  citizens  of  Rome,  thus  affording 
relief  to  all  Italy ;  and  that  corn  should  be  sold  to 
Romans  by  the  state  at  a  nominal  price. 

When  Marius  retired,  the  authority  of  the  senate 
was  restored,  but  the  state  was  in  a  deplorable  con- 
dition, for  the  violence  and  bloodshed  that  had  been 
familiar  for  the  half  century  since  the  triumph  over 
Greece  and  Carthage,  were  bearing  their  legitimate 


1 86  SOCIAL  AND  CIVIL  WARS. 

fruits.  Not  only  was  the  separation  between  the 
rich  and  poor  constantly  growing  greater,  but  the 
effect  of  the  luxury  and  license  of  the  wealthy  was 
debauching  the  public  conscience,  and  faith  was 
everywhere  falling  away.  Impostors  and  foreign 
priests  had  full  sway. 

Opposed  to  Saturninus  was  a  noble  of  the  most 
exalted  type  of  character,  Marcus  Livius  Drusus,  son 
of  the  Drusus  who  had  opposed  the  Gracchi.  A 
genuine  aristocrat,  possessed  of  a  colossal  fortune, 
strict  in  his  morals  and  trustworthy  in  every  position, 
he  was  a  man  of  acknowledged  weight  in  the 
national  councils.  In  the  year  91,  he  was  elected 
tribune,  and  endeavored  to  bring  about  reform.  He 
obtained  the  adherence  of  the  people  by  laws  for 
distributing  corn  at  low  prices,  and  by  holding  out 
to  the  allies  hopes  of  the  franchise.  The  allies  had 
long  looked  for  this,  and  as  their  condition  had  been 
growing  worse  year  by  year,  their  impatience 
increased,  until  at  last  they  were  no  longer  willing  to 
brook  delay.  The  Romans  (whose  party  cry  was 
"Rome  for  the  Romans")  ever  opposed  this  meas- 
ure, and  now  they  stirred  up  opposition  to  the  con- 
servative Drusus,  who  paid  the  penalty  of  his  life  to 
his  efforts  at  civil  reform  and  the  alleviation  of 
oppression.  Though  he  tried  to  please  all  parties, 
the  senate  first  rendered  his  laws  nugatory,  and  their 
partisans  not  satisfied  with  his  civil  defeat,  after- 
wards caused  him  to  be  assassinated.*  It  was  then 

*  Velleius  Paterculus,  the  historian,  relates  that  as  Drusus  was 
dying,  he  looked  upon  the  crowd  of  citizens  who  were  lamenting  his 
fortune,  and  said,  in  conscious  innocence:  "  My  relations  and  friends, 
will  the  commonwealth  ever  again  have  a  citizen  like  me?"  He 


THE  MARSIANS  AND  OTHER  ALLIES.        187 

enacted  that  all  who  favored  the  allies  should  be 
considered  guilty  of  treason  to  the  state.  Many 
prominent  citizens  were  condemned  under  this  law, 
and  the  allies  naturally  became  convinced  that  there 
was  no  hope  for  them  except  in  revolution. 

Rome  was  in  consequence  menaced  by  those  who 
had  before  been  her  helpers,  and  the  danger  was  one 
of  the  greatest  that  she  had  ever  encountered.  The 
Italians  were  prepared  for  the  contest,  but  the 
Romans  were  not.  It  was  determined  by  the  allies 
that  Rome  should  be  destroyed,  and  a  new  capital 
erected  at  Corfinum,  which  was  to  be  known  as 
Italica.  On  both  sides  it  was  a  struggle  for  exist- 
ence. 

The  Marsians  were  the  most  prominent  among 
the  allies  in  one  division,  and  the  Samnites  were  at 
the  head  of  another.*  The  whole  of  Central  Italy 
became  involved  in  the  desperate  struggle.  The 
Etruscans  and  Umbrians  took  the  part  of  Rome, 
being  offered  the  suffrage  for  their  allegiance.  At 
the  end  of  the  first  campaign  this  was  offered  also  to 
those  of  the  other  antagonistic  allies  who  would  lay 
down  their  arms,  and  by  this  means  discord  was 
thrown  into  the  camp  of  the  enemy.  The  campaign 
of  89  was  favorable  to  the  Romans,  who,  led  by 

adds,  as  illustrating  the  purity  of  his  intentions,  that  when  Drusus 
was  building  a  house  on  the  Palatine,  his  architect  offered  to  make  it 
so  that  no  observer  could  see  into  it,  but  he  said  :  "  Rather,  build 
my  house  so  that  whatever  I  do  may  be  seen  by  all." 

*  The  Marsians  were  an  ancient  people  of  Central  Italy,  inhabiting 
a  mountainous  district,  and  had  won  distinction  among  the  allies  for 
their  skill  and  courage  in  war.  "  The  Marsic  cohorts  "  was  an  almost 
proverbial  expression  for  the  bravest  troops  in  the  time  of  Horace  and 
Virgil. 


1 88  SOCIAL  AND  CIVIL  WARS. 

Sulla,  drove  the  enemy  out  of  Campania,  and  cap- 
tured the  town  of  Bovianum.  The  following  year 
the  war  was  closed,  but  Rome  and  Italy  had  lost 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  their  citizens, 
while  the  allies  had  nominally  obtained  the  conces- 
sions that  they  had  fought  for. 

Ten  new  tribes  were  formed  in  which  the  new 
citizens  were  enrolled,  thus  keeping  them  in  a  body 
by  themselves ;  and  it  was  natural  that  there  should 
be  much  discontent  among  them  on  account  of  the 
manner  in  which  their  privileges  had  been  awarded. 
The  franchise  could  only  be  obtained  by  a  visit  to 
Rome,  which  was  difficult  for  the  inhabitants  of 
distant  regions,  and  there  was  besides  no  place  in 
the  city  large  enough  to  contain  all  the  citizens,  if 
they  had  been  able  to  come.  The  new  citizens 
found,  too,  that  there  was  still  a  difference  between 
themselves  and  those  who  had  before  enjoyed  the 
suffrage,  something  like  that  which  existed  between 
the  freedmen  and  the  men  who  had  never  been 
enslaved. 

Marius  and  Sulla,  the  ever-vigilant  rivals,  had  both 
been  engaged  in  the  Marsic  war,  but  they  came  out 
of  it  in  far  differing  frames  of  mind.  The  young 
aristocrat  boasted  that  fortune  had  permitted  him  to 
strike  the  last  decisive  blow ;  and  the  old  plebeian, 
now  seventy  years  of  ape,  found  his  heart  swelling 
with  indignation  because  he  received  only  new  mor- 
tifications in  return  for  his  new  services  to  the  state, 
in  whose  behalf  he  had  this  time  fought  with  reluc- 
tance. A  spirit  of  dire  vengeance  was  agitating  his 
heart,  the  results  of  which  we  are  soon  to  observe. 


FIRST   WAR   WITH  MITHRIDATES.  189 

The  troubles  of  the  state  now  seemed  to  accumu- 
late with  terrible  rapidity.  Two  wars  broke  out 
immediately  upon  the  close  of  that  which  we  have 
just  considered,  one  at  home  and  the  other  in  Asia. 
The  one  was  the  strife  of  faction,  and  the  other  an 
effort  to  repel  attacks  upon  allies  of  the  republic. 
Mithridates  the  Great,  King  of  Pontus,  the  sixth  of 
his  name,  was  remarkable  for  his  physical  and 
mental  development,  no  less  than  for  his  great 
ambition  and  boundless  activity.  Under  his  rule 
his  kingdom  had  reached  its  greatest  power.  This 
monarch  had  attempted  to  add  to  his  dominion 
Cappadocia,  the  country  adjoining  Pontus  on  the 
south,  by  placing  his  nephew  on  the  throne,  but 
Sulla,  who  was  then  in  Cilicia,  prevented  it.  Mithri- 
dates next  interfered  in  the  government  of  Bithynia, 
to  the  southwest,  expecting  that  the  oppressive  rule 
of  the  Roman  governors  would  lead  the  inhabitants 
to  be  friendly  to  him,  while  the  troubles  of  the 
Romans  at  home  would  make  it  difficult  for  them  to 
interfere.  The  close  of  the  Marsian  struggle,  how- 
ever, left  Rome  free  to  engage  the  Eastern  conqueror, 
and  war  was  determined  upon. 

The  success  of  Sulla  in  the  East  made  it  plain  that 
he  was  the  one  to  lead  the  army,  but  Marius  was 
still  ambitious  to  gain  new  laurels,  and  in  order  to 
prove  that  he  was  not  too  old  to  endure  the  hard- 
ships of  a  campaign,  he  went  daily  to  the  Campus 
Martius  and  exercised  with  the  young  men.  His 
efforts  proved  vain,  and  he  determined  to  take  more 
positive  measures.  He  procured  the  enactment  of 
<i  law  distributing  the  new  citizens,  who  far  out- 


1 9°  SOCIAL  AND   CIVIL   WARS, 

numbered  the  old  ones,  among  the  tribes,  knowing 
that  they  would  vote  in  his  favor.  It  was  not  with- 
out much  opposition  that  this  law  was  enacted,  but 
Marius  was  then  appointed,  instead  of  Sulla,  to  lead 
the  army  against  Pontus.  Sulla  meantime  hastened 
to  the  army  and  obtained  actual  command  of  the 
soldiers,  who  loved  him,  caused  the  tribunes  of 
Marius  to  be  murdered,  and  left  the  old  commander 
without  support.  Marius  in  turn  raised  another 
army  by  offering  freedom  to  slaves,  and  with  it 
attempted  to  resist  Sulla,  but  in  vain.  He  was 
obliged  to  fly,  and  a  price  was  placed  upon  his  head. 
He  sailed  for  Africa,  but  was  thrown  back  upon  the 
shores  of  Italy,  was  cast  into  prison,  and  ordered  to 
execution  ;  but  the  slave  commissioned  to  carry  out 
the  judgment  was  frightened  by  the  flashing  eyes  of 
the  aged  warrior  and  refused  to  perform  the  act,  as 
he  heard  a  voice  from  the  darkness  of  the  cell 
haughtily  asking:  "Fellow,  darest  thou  kill  Caius 
Marius?"  The  magistrates,  struck  with  pity  and  re- 
morse, as  they  reflected  that  Marius  was  the  pre- 
server of  Italy,  let  him  go  to  meet  his  fate  on  other 
shores,  and  at  last  he  found  his  way  to  Africa. 

The  departure  of  both  Marius  and  Sulla  from 
Rome  left  it  exposed  to  a  new  danger.  As  soon  as 
Sulla  had  left  for  Pontus,  Lucius  Cornelius  Cinna, 
one  of  the  consuls,  began  to  form  a  popular  party, 
composed  largely  of  the  newly  made  citizens,  for  the 
purpose  of  overpowering  the  senate  and  recalling 
Marius.  A  frightful  conflict  ensued  on  a  day  of 
voting,  and  thousands  were  butchered  in  the  struggle. 
Cinna  was  driven  from  the  city,  but  received  the 


CINNA   AND  MARIUS  CONSULS.  19 1 

support  of  a  vast  number  of  Italians,  which  enabled 
him  to  march  again  upon  Rome. 

Meantime  Marius  returned  from  Africa,  captured 
Ostia  and  other  places,  and  joined  Cinna.  Then,  by 
cutting  off  its  supplies,  he  caused  the  city  to  yield. 
Marius  and  Cinna  entered  the  gates,  and  again  the 
streets  ran  blood ;  for  every  one  who  had  given 
Marius  cause  to  hate  or  fear  him  was  hunted  to  the 
death  without  mercy,  and  with  no  respect  to  rank, 
talent,  or  former  friendship.  Cinna  and  Marius 
named  themselves  consuls  for  the  year  86  without 
the  form  of  election,*  but  the  firm  constitution  of  the 
old  hero  was  completely  undermined  by  his  sufferings 
and  fatigues,  and  he  succumbed  to  an  attack  of 
pleurisy  after  a  few  days,  during  which,  as  Plutarch 
tells  us,  he  was  terrified  by  dreams  and  by  the 
anticipated  return  of  Sulla.  The  people  rejoiced 
that  they  were  freed  from  the  cruelty  of  his  ruthless 
tyranny,  little  knowing  what  new  horrors  the  grim 
future  had  in  store  for  them. 

We  return  now  to  Sulla.  When  he  had  driven 
Marius  from  Rome,  he  was  obliged  to  hasten  away 
to  carry  on  the  war  in  Asia,  though  he  marched  first 
against  Athens,  which  had  become  the  head-quarters 
of  the  allies  of  Mithridates  in  Greece.  The  siege  of 
this  city  was  long  and  obstinate,  and  it  was  not  until 
March  I,  86,  that  it  was  overcome,  when  Sulla  gave 
it  up  to  rapine  and  pillage.  He  then  advanced  into 
Bceotia,  and  success  continued  to  follow  his  arms 
until  the  year  84,  when  he  crossed  the  Hellespont  to 
carry  the  war  into  Asia.  Mithridates  had  put  to 
*  See  note  on  page  64. 


IQ2  SOCIAL  AND   CIVIL   WARS. 

death  all  Roman  citizens  and  allies,  wherever  found, 
with  all  the  reckless  ferocity  of  an  Asiatic  tyrant,  but 
had  met  many  losses  and  was  now  anxious  to  have 
peace.  Sulla  settled  the  terms  at  a  personal  inter- 
view at  Dardanus,  in  the  Troad.  Enormous  sums 
(estimated  at  more  than  $100,000,000)  were  exacted 
from  the  rich  cities,  and  a  single  settled  government 
was  restored  to  Greece,  Macedonia,  and  Asia  Minor. 
The  soldiers  were  compensated  for  their  fatigues  by 
a  luxurious  winter  in  Asia,  and,  in  the  spring  of  83, 
they  were  transferred,  in  1 ,600  vessels,  from  Ephesus 
to  the  Piraeus,  and  thence  to  Brundusium.  Sulla 
carried  with  him  from  Athens  the  valuable  library 
of  Apellicon  of  Teos,  which  contained  the  works  of 
Aristotle  and  his  disciple,  Theophrastus,  then  not  in 
general  circulation,  for  he  did  not  forget  his  interest 
in  literature  even  in  war.  Thus  it  was  that  the 
rich  thoughts  of  the  great  philosopher  came  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  Roman  students.* 

Sulla  sent  a  letter  to  the  senate,  announcing  the 
close  of  the  war  and  his  intention  to  return,  in  the 
course  of  which  he  took  occasion  to  recount  his  ser- 
vices to  the  republic,  from  the  time  of  the  war  with 
Jugurtha  to  the  conquest  of  Mithridates,  and 
announced  that  he  should  take  vengeance  upon 
his  enemies  and  upon  those  of  the  commonwealth. 
The  senate  was  alarmed,  and  proposed  to  treat  with 
him  for  peace,  but  Cinna  hastened  to  oppose  the 

*  Aristoteles,  sometimes  called  the  Stagirite,  because  he  was  born  in 
Stagira,  in  Macedonia,  lived  at  Athens  in  the  fourth  century  before 
our  era.  Theophrastus  was  his  friend  and.  disciple,  both  at  Stagira 
and  Athens. 


THE   CAPITOL  BURNED.  193 

arrogant  conqueror  with  force.     He  was,  however, 
assassinated  by  his  own  soldiers. 

On  the  sixth  of  July,  after  the  arrival  of  Sulla  at 
Brundusium  (B.C.  83),  Rome  was  thrown  into  a  state 
of  consternation  by  the  burning  of  the  capitol  and 
the  destruction  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus, 
with  the  Sibylline  oracles,  those  valuable  books 
which  had  directed  the  counsels  of  the  nation  for 
ages,  and  the  close  of  a  historic  era  approached.* 
Sulla  easily  marched  in  triumph  through  lower  Italy 
on  his  way  to  Rome,  for  his  opponents  were  not  well 
organized,  but  it  was  not  until  months  had  passed 
that  the  fierce  struggle  was  decided.  He  was  be- 
sieging Praeneste,  when  the  Samnites,  after  finding 
that  they  could  not  relieve  it,  marched  directly  upon 
Rome.  Sulla  followed  them,  and  a  bloody  battle 
was  fought  at  the  Colline  gate,  on  the  northern  side 
of  the  city.  It  was  a  fight  for  the  very  existence  of 
Rome,  for  Pontius  Telesinus,  commander  of  the 
Samnites,  declared  that  he  intended  to  raze  the  city 
to  the  ground.  Fifty  thousand  are  said  to  have 
fallen  on  each  side,  and  most  of  the  leaders  of  the 
party  of  Marius  perished  or  were  afterward  put  to 
death.  All  the  Samnites  (8,000)  who  were  taken 
were  collected  by  Sulla  in  the  Campus  Martius  and 
ruthlessly  butchered. 

If  the  former  scenes  had  been  terrible,  much  more 
so  were  those  that  now  followed.  Sulla  was  made 
dictator,  an  officer  that  had  been  unknown  for  a 

*  Ambassadors  were  afterwards  sent  to  various  places  in  Greece, 
Asia,  and  Italy,  to  make  a  fresh  collection,  and  when  the  temple  was 
rebuilt  it  was  put  in  the  place  occupied  by  the  lost  books. 


194  SOCIAL  AND   CIVIL   WARS. 

century  and  a  quarter,  and  proceeded  to  show  his 
adhesion  to  the  optimates  by  attempting  to  blot  out 
the  popular  party.  He  announced  that  he  would 
give  a  better  government  to  Rome,  but  he  found  it 
necessary  to  kill  all  whom  he  pretended  to  think  her 
enemies.  It  was  Marius  who  had  brought  on  the 
era  of  carnage  by  attempting  to  deprive  Sulla  of  his 
command  in  the  war  against  Mithridates,  and  ac- 
cordingly the  body  of  the  great  plebeian  was  torn 
from  its  tomb  and  cast  into  the  Anio.  A  list  was 
drawn  up  of  those  whose  possessions  were  to  be  con- 
fiscated, and  who  were  themselves  to  be  executed  in 
vengeance.  On  this  the  names  of  the  family  of 
Marius  came  first.  Fresh  lists  were  constantly 
posted  in  the  forum.  Each  of  these  was  called  a 
tabula  proscriptionis,  a  list  of  proscription,  and  it  pre- 
sents the  first  instance  of  a  proscription  in  Roman 
history.*  Sulla  placed  on  these  lists  not  only  the 
names  of  enemies  of  the  state,  but  his  personal 
opponents,  those  whose  property  he  coveted,  and 
those  who  were  enemies  of  friends  whom  he  desired 
to  please.  No  man  was  safe,  for  his  name  might 
appear  at  any  time  on  the  terrible  lists,  and  then  he 
would  be  an  outlaw,  whom  any  one  might  kill  with 
impunity.  Especially  were  the  rich  and  prominent 
liable  to  find  themselves  in  this  position.  Many 
thousands  of  unfortunate  citizens  perished  before 
Sulla  was  content  to  put  a  stop  to  the  horrors.  He 

*  A  proscription  had  formerly  been  an  offering  for  sale  of  any  thing 
by  advertisement  ;  but  Sulla  gave  it  a  new  meaning, — the  sale  of  the 
property  of  those  unfortunates  who  were  put  to  death  by  his  orders. 
The  victims  were  said  to  be  proscribed.  The  meaning  given  by  Sulla 
still  lives  in  the  English  word. 


SULLA'S  BLOODY    WORK.  1 95 

then  celebrated  with  exceeding  magnificence  the 
postponed  triumph  on  account  of  his  victory  over 
Mithridates,  and  received  from  a  trembling  people 
the  title  Felix,  the  lucky. 

It  has  been  said  that  after  having  killed  the  men 
with  his  sword,  Sulla  made  it  his  work  to  kill  the 
party  that  opposed  him,  by  laws.  He  wished  to  have 
in  Rome  the  silence  and  the  autocracy  of  a  camp. 
He  put  some  three  hundred  new  members  into  the 
senate,  and  gave  that  body  the  power  to  veto 
legislative  enactments,  while  at  the  same  time  he  re- 
stricted the  authority  of  the  tribunes  of  the  people 
and  of  the  comitia  tributa,  the  general  conven- 
tion of  the  tribes.  On  the  other  hand,  he  re- 
duced debts  by  one  fourth,  to  conciliate  the  masses, 
and  paid  his  soldiers  for  their  services  in  the  civil 
strife  with  vast  amounts  of  booty  and  great  num- 
bers of  slaves.  The  pomasrium  was  extended  to 
embrace  all  Italy,  and,  as  is  supposed,  the  northern 
boundary  of  Roman  territory  was  extended  to  the 
Rubicon.  New  courts  were  established  and  the 
judicial  system  was  reorganized  ;  the  censors  were 
practically  shelved,  but  sumptuary  laws  were  passed 
to  prevent  extravagance  and  luxury.  All  of  the  laws 
of  Sulla  were  submitted  to  the  people  for  formal 
approval ;  but  as  no  one  was  hardy  enough  to  differ 
from  the  dictator,  it  mattered  little  what  the  people 
thought. 

By  the  beginning  of  the  year  79,  Sulla  considered 
that  his  reforms  were  complete,  and  bethought  him- 
self of  retiring  to  see  at  a  little  distance  the  effect  of 
his  regulations.  He  felt  th?*  no  danger  could  over- 


196  SOCIAL  AND   CIVIL   WARS. 

take  him,  for  he  had  settled  his  old  veterans  (called 
Cornelians),  to  the  number  of  more  than  a  hundred 
thousand,  in  colonies  scattered  throughout  Italy,  on 
the  estates  and  in  the  cities  that  he  had  confiscated, 
and  thought  that  they  would  prove  his  supporters  in 
any  event.  He  boldly  summoned  the  people  and, 
announcing  his  purpose,  offered  to  render  an  account 
of  his  official  conduct.  He  gave  the  crowd  a  congi- 
arium,  as  it  was  called — that  is,  he  glutted  them  with 
the  costliest  meats  and  the  richest  wines,  and  so 
great  was  his  profusion  that  vast  quantities  that  the 
gorged  multitude  were  unable  to  eat  were  cast  into 
the  Tiber.  He  then  discharged  his  armed  attend- 
ants, dismissed  his  lictors,  descended  from  the  ros- 
tra, and  retired  on  foot  to  his  house,  accompanied 
only  by  his  friends,  passing  through  the  midst  of 
the  populace  which  he  had  given  every  reason  to 
desire  to  wreak  vengeance  upon  him.  It  was  au- 
dacity of  the  supremest  sort.  Sulla  afterwards  with- 
drew to  his  estate  at  Puteoli,  where  he  spent  the 
brief  remainder  of  his  life  in  the  most  remarkable 
alternation  of  nocturnal  orgies  and  cultured  enjoy- 
ment, sharing  his  time  with  male  and  female  debau- 
chees and  learned  students  of  Greek  literature,  and 
concluding  the  memoirs  of  his  life  and  times,  in 
which,  through  twenty-two  books,  he  recorded  the 
story  of  his  deeds,  colored  doubtless  to  a  great  ex- 
tent by  his  own  magnificent  self-love.  In  the  last 
words  of  his  "  Memoirs  "  he  characterized  himself, 
with  a  certain  degree  of  truth  from  his  own  point  of 
view,  as  "  fortunate  and  all-powerful  to  his  last 
hour." 


THE  END  OF  SULLA. 


197 


The  senate  voted  Sulla  a  gorgeous  funeral,  in  spite 
of  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  consul  Lepidus,  and 
his  body  was  carried  to  the  Campus  Martius,  preceded 
by  the  magistrates,  the  senate,  the  equites,  the  vestal 
virgins,  and  the  veterans.  There  it  was  burned,  that 
no  future  tyrant  could  treat  it  as  that  of  Marius  had 
been,  though  up  to  that  time  the  Cornelian  gens,  to 
which  Sulla  belonged,  had  always  buried  their  dead. 

Thus  lived  and  thus  died  the  man  who,  though  he 
relieved  Rome  of  the  last  of  her  invaders,  infused  into 
her  system  a  malady  from  which  she  was  to  suffer  in 
the  future ;  for  the  pampered  veterans  whom  he  had 
distributed  throughout  Italy  in  scenes  of  peace,  all 
unwonted  to  such  a  life,  were  to  be  the  ones  on 
which  another  oppressor  was  to  depend  in  his  efforts 
to  subvert  the  government. 


XIV. 

THE   MASTER   SPIRITS   OF  THIS  AGE. 

ROME  was  now  ruled  by  an  oligarchy, — that  is,  the 
control  of  public  affairs  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  few 
persons.  There  was  an  evident  tendency,  however, 
towards  the  union  of  all  the  functions  of  govern- 
mental authority  in  the  person  of  a  single  man, 
whenever  one  should  be  found  of  sufficient  strength 
to  grasp  them.  The  younger  Gracchus  had  exercised 
almost  supreme  control,  and  Marius,  Cinna,  and 
Sulla  had  followed  him  ;  but  their  power  had  per- 
ished with  them,  leaving  no  relics  in  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  government,  except  as  it  marked 
stages  in  the  general  progress.  Now  other  strong 
men  arise  who  pursue  the  same  course,  and  lead 
directly  up  to  the  concentration  of  supreme  authority 
in  the  hands  of  one  man,  and  he  not  a  consul,  nor  a 
tribune,  nor  a  dictator,  but  an  emperor,  a  titled 
personage  never  before  known  in  Rome.  With  this 
culmination  the  life  of  the  populus  Romanus  was 
destined  to  end. 

A  dramatist  endeavoring  to  depict  public  life  at 
Rome  during  the  period  following  the  death  of 
Sulla,  would  find  himself  embarrassed  by  the  multi- 
tude of  men  of  note  crowding  upon  his  attention. 


THE  OWNER  OF  THE  WHITE  FAWN.         199 

One  of  the  eldest  of  these  was  Quintus  Scrtorius.  a 
soldier  of  chivalric  bravery,  who  had  come  into 
prominence  during  the  Marian  wars  in  GauL  He 
had  at  that  time  won  distinction  by  boldly  entering 
the  camp  of  the  Xeutpnes  disguised  as  a  spy,  and 
bringing  away  valuable  information,  before  the 
battle  at  Aix._^When  Sulla-was  fighting  Mithridates, 
Sgrtorius_was  on  the  side  of  Cinna,  and  had  to  flee 
from  the  city  with  him.  When  the  battle  was  fought 
at  the  Collinegate,  Sertorius  served  with  his  old  com- 
rade Marius^  whom  he  did  not  admire,  and  with 
Cinna,  but  we  do  not  know  that  he  shared  the  guilt 
of  the  massecre  that  followed.  Certainly  he  punished 
the  slaves  that  surrounded  Marius  for  their  cruel 


excesses.  When  Sulla  returned,  ^e,rtofi«s_  escaped 
to^Spjurj,  where  Fe  raised  an  army,  and  achieved  so 
much  popularity  that  the  Romans  at  home  grew 
very  jealous  of  him.*  He  did  not  intentionally  go 
to  live  in  Spain,  but  having  heard  that  there  were 
certain  islands  out  in  the  Atlantic  celebrated  since 
the  days  of  Plato  as  the  abode  of  the  blest  ;  where 
gentle  breezes  brought  soft  dews  to  enrich  the  fertile 
soil  ;  where  delicate  fruits  grew  to  feed  the  inhabi- 

*  Sertorius  is  almost  the  only  one  among  the  statesmen  of  antiquity 
who  seems  to  have  recognized  the  modern  truth,  that  education  is  a 
valuable  aid  in  making  a  government  firm.  He  established  a  school 
in  Spain  in  which  boys  of  high  rank,  dressed  in  the  garb  of  Romans, 
learned  the  languages  that  still  form  the  basis  of  a  classical  education, 
while  they  were  also  held  as  hostages  for  the  good  behavior  of  their 
elders.  He  was  not  a  philanthropist,  but  a  sagacious  ruler,  and  the 
author  of  Latin  colonies  in  the  West.  He  was  fora  time  accom- 
panied by  a  white  fawn,  which  he  encouraged  the  superstitious  bar- 
barians to  believe  was  a  familiar  spirit,  by  means  of  which  he  com- 
municated with  the  unseen  powers  and  ensured  his  success. 


2OO        THE  MASTER  SPIRITS  OF   THIS  AGE. 

tants  without  their  trouble  or  labor ;  where  the 
yellow-haired  Rhadamanthus  was  refreshed  by  the 
whistling  breezes  of  Zephyrus ;  he  longed  to  find 
them  and  live  in  peace  and  quiet,  far  from  the  rush 
of  war  and  the  groans  of  the  oppressed.  From  this 
bright  vision  he  was  turned,  but  perhaps  his  efforts 
to  establish  a  merciful  government  in  Spain  may  be 
traced  to  its  influence. 

Another  prominent  man  on  the  stage  at  this  time 
was  a  leader  of  the  aristocratic  party,  Marcus  Crassus, 
who  lived  in  a  house  that  is  estimated  to  have  cost 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars.  Probably 
he  would  not  have  been  very  prominent  if  his  father 
had  not  left  him  a  small  fortune,  to  which  he  had 
added  very  largely  by  methods  that  we  can  hardly 
consider  noble.  It  is  said  that  when  the  Sullan 
proscription  was  going  on,  he  obtained  at  ruinously 
low  prices  the  estates  that  the  proscribed  had  to  give 
up,  and,  whenever  there  was  a  fire,  he  would  be  on 
the  spot  ready  to  buy  the  burning  or  ruined  buildings 
for  little  or  nothing.  He  owned  many  slaves  who 
were  accomplished  as  writers,  silversmiths,  stewards, 
and  table-waiters,  whom  he  let  out  to  those  who 
wished  their  services,  and  thus  added  largely  to  his 
income.  He  did  not  build  any  houses,  except  the 
one  in  which  he  lived,  for  he  agreed  with  the  proverb 
which  says  that  fools  build  houses  for  wise  men  to 
live  in,  though  "  the  greatest  part  of  Rome  sooner 
or  later  came  into  his  hands,"  as  Plutarch  observes. 
He  was  of  that  sordid,  avaricious  character  which 
covets  wealth  merely  for  the  desire  to  be  considered 
rich,  for  the  vulgar  popularity  that  accompanies  that 


THE    WEALTHY  CRASSUS.  2OI 

reputation,  and  not  for  ambition  or  enjoyment.  He 
was  said  to  be  uninfluenced  by  the  love  of  luxury  or 
by  the  other  passions  of  humanity.  He  was  not  a 
man  of  extensive  learning,  though  he  was  pretty 
well  versed  in  philosophy  and  in  history,  and  by 
pains  and  industry  had  made  himself  an  accomplished 
orator.  He  could  thus  wield  a  great  influence  by 
his  speeches  to  the  people  from  the  rostra. 

Among  the  aristocrats  who  composed  the  oligarchy 
that  ruled  at  about  this  time  were  two  men  born  in 
the  same  year  (106  B.C.):  the  egotistic,  vain,  and 
irresolute,  but  personally  pure  orator,  Marcus  Tullius 
Cicero;  and  the  cold  and  haughty  soldier,  Cneius 
Pompeius  Magnus,  commonly  known  as  Pompey  the 
Great.  The  philosophical,  oratorical,  and  theological 
writings  of  Cicero  are  still  studied  in  our  schools  as 
models  in  their  different  classes.  Inheriting  a  love 
of  culture  from  his  father,  a  member  of  an  ancient 
family,  he  was  afforded  every  advantage  in  becoming 
acquainted  with  all  branches  of  a  polite  education  ; 
and  travelled  to  the  chief  seats  of  learning  in  Greece 
and  Asia  Minor  with  this  end  in  view.  When  he 
was  twenty-six  years  of  age,  he  made  his  first 
appearance  as  a  public  pleader,  and  soon  gained  the 
reputation  of  being  the  first  orator  at  the  Roman 
bar.  Besides  these  pursuits,  Cicero  had  had  a  brief 
military  experience,  during  the  war  between  Sulla 
and  Marius. 

Pompey,  likewise,  began  to  learn  the  art  of  war 
under  his  father,  in  the  same  struggle,  but  he  con- 
tinued its  exercise  until  he  became  a  consummate 
warrior.  For  his  success  in  pursuing  the  remains  of 


202        THE  MASTER  SPIRITS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

the  Marian  faction  in  Africa  and  Sicily,  Pompey 
was  honored  with  the  name  Magnus  (the  Great),  and 
with  a  triumph,  a  distinction  that  had  never  before 
been  won  by  a  man  of  his  rank  who  had  not  pre- 
viously held  public  office. 

Older  than  these  men  there  was  one  whose  charac- 
ter is  forever  blackened  on  the  pages  of  history  by 
the  relentless  pen  of  Cicero,  Caius  Licinius  Verres, 
who,  if  we  may  believe  the  only  records  we  have 
regarding  him,  was  the  most  phenomenal  freebooter 
of  all  time.  The  story  of  his  career  is  a  vivid 
demonstration  of  the  manner  in  which  the  people  of 
the  Roman  provinces  were  outraged  by  the  officers 
sent  to  rule  over  them,  and  we  shall  anticipate  our 
story  a  little  in  tracing  it.  The  provincial  governors 
were,  as  a  class,  corrupt,  and  ^snes.  was  as  vile  as 
any  of  them,  but  he  was  also  brutal  in  his  manners  and 
natural  instincts,  rapacious,  licentious,  cruel,  and  fond 
oflow companions.  At  first, ~oT!e~6Ttrie  Marian  faction, 


le  betrayed  his  associates,  embezzled  the  funds  that 
had  been  entrusted  to  him,  and  joined  himself  to 
Sulla,  who  sent  him  to  Brundusium,  allowing  him  a 
share  in  the  confiscated  estates.  Thence  he  was 
transferred  to  Cilicia,  where  again  he  proved  a  traitor 
to  his  superior  officer,  and  stole  from  cities,  private 
persons,  temples,  and  public  places,  every  thing  that 
his  rapacity  coveted.  One  city  offered  him  a  vessel 
as  a  loan,  and  he  refused  to  return  it ;  another  had  a 
statue  of  Diana  covered  with  gold,  and  he  scraped 
off  the  precious  metal  to  put  it  in  his  pocket.  Using 
the  money  thus  gained  to  ensure  his  election  to  office 
at  Rome,  Verres  enjoyed  a  year  at  the  Capitol,  and 


THE  FREEBOOTER   VERRES.  203 

then  entered  upon  a  still  more  outrageous  career  as 
governor  of  the  island  of  Sicily.  Taking  with  him 
a  painter  and  a  sculptor  well  versed  in  the  values  of 
works  of  art,  he  systematically  gathered  together  all 


POMPEY  (CNEIUS   POMPEIUS   MAGNUS). 

that  was  considered  choice  in  the  galleries  and  tem- 
ples. Allowing  his  officers  to  make  exorbitant  exac- 
tions upon  the  farmers,  he  confiscated  many  estates 
to  his  own  use,  and  reaped  the  crops.  Even  travel- 
lers were  attacked  to  enrich  this  extraordinary 


204         THE  MASTER  SPIRITS  OF   THIS  AGE. 

thief,  and  six  vessels  were  afterward  dispatched  to 
Rome  with  the  plunder,  which  he  asserted  was 
sufficient  to  permit  him  to  revel  in  opulence  the 
remainder  of  his  life,  even  if  he  were  obliged  to  give 
up  two  thirds  in  fines  and  bribes. 

The  people  Verres  had  outraged  did  not,  however, 
suffer  in  quiet.  They  engaged  Cicero  to  conduct 
their  case  against  him,  and  this  the  great  orator  did 
with  overwhelming  success.*  Though  protected  by 
Hortensius,  an  older  advocate,  who,  during  the 
absence  of  Cicero,  on  his  travels,  had  acquired  the 
highest  rank  as  an  orator,  so  terrible  was  the 
arraignment  in  its  beginning  that,  at  the  suggestion 
of  Hortensius,  Verres  did  not  remain  to  hear  its 
close,  but  hastened  into  voluntary  exile.  He  precipi- 
tately took  ship  for  Marseilles,  and  for  twenty-seven 
years  was  forced  to  remain  in  that  city.  Would 
that  every  misdoer  among  the  provincial  governors 
had  thus  been  followed  up  by  the  law ! 

The  representative  of  the  Sullan  party  at  this 
time  was  Lucius  Sergius  Catiline,  an  aristocrat,  who, 
during  the  proscription,  behaved  with  fiendish 
atrocity  towards  those  of  the  opposite  party,  tortur- 
ing and  killing  men  with  the  utmost  recklessness. 

*  The  orations  of  Cicero  against  Verres  are  based  upon  informa- 
tion which  the  orator  gathered  by  personally  examining  witnesses  at 
the  scenes  of  the  rascality  he  unveiled.  The  orator  showed  a  true 
Roman  lack  of  appreciation  of  Greek  art,  and  exercised  his  own  love 
of  puns  to  a  considerable  extent,  playing  a  good  deal  upon  the  name 
Verres,  which  meant  a  boar.  The  extreme  corpulence  of  the  defend- 
ant, too,  offered  an  opportunity  for  gross  personal  allusions.  Cicero 
compared  him  to  the  Erymanthean  boar,  and  called  him  the  "drag- 
net "  of  Sicily,  because  his  name  resembled  the  word  everriculum,  a 
drag-net. 


CATILINE,  THE  ARISTOCRATIC  CONSPIRATOR.     20$ 

His  early  years  had  been  passed  in  undisguised 
debaucheries  and  unrestrained  vice,  but  in  spite  of 
all  his  acts,  he  made  political  progress,  was  praetor, 
governor  of  Africa,  and  candidate  for  the  consulship 
by  turn.  Failing  in  the  last  effort,  however,  he 
entered  into  a  conspiracy  to  murder  the  successful 
candidates,  and  was  only  foiled  by  his  own  impa- 
tience. We  shall  find  that  he  was  encouraged  by  this 
failure  which  so  nearly  proved  a  success. 

There  was  one  man  among  the  host  of  busy  figures 
on  the  stage  at  this  eventful  period  who  seems  to 
stalk  about  like  a  born  master,  and  the  lapse  of  time 
since  his  days  has  not  at  all  dimmed  the  fame  of  his 
deeds,  so  deep  a  mark  have  they  left  upon  the  laws  and 
customs  of  mankind,  and  so  noteworthy  are  they  in 
the  annals  of  Rome.  Caius  Julius  Caesar  was  six 
years  younger  than  Pompey  and  Cicero,  and  was  of 
the  popular  or  Marian  party,  both  by  birth  and  tastes. 
His  aunt  Julia  was  wife  of  the  great  Marius  himself, 
and  though  he  had  married  a  young  woman  of  high 
birth  to  please  his  father,  he  divorced  her  as  soon  as 
his  father  died,  and  married  Cornelia,  daughter  of 
Cinna,  the  devoted  opponent  of  Sulla,  to  please  him- 
self. 

When  Sulla  returned  to  Rome  from  the  East,  he 
ordered  Pompey  to  put  away  his  wife,  and  he 
obeyed.  He  ordered  Caesar,  a  boy  of  seventeen,  to 
give  up  his  Cornelia,  and  he  proudly  replied  that  he 
would  not.  Of  course  he  could  not  remain  at  Rome 


after  that^aa1'1  hp  flpHthe  land^  of'the  Sabmes 
until  Sulla  was  induced  to  grant  him  a  pardon. 
Still,  he  did  not  feel  secure  at  Rome,  and  a  second 


206        THE  M 'ASTER   SPIRITS  OF   THIS  AGE. 

time  he  sought  safety  in  expatriation.  Upon  the 
death  of  the  dictator,  he  returned,  having  gained 
experience  in  war,  and  having  developed  his  talents 
as  an  orator  by  study  in  a  school  at  Rhodes.  He 
plunged  immediately  into  public  life  and  won  great 
distinction  by  his  effective  speaking. 

These  are  enough  characters  for  us  to  remember 
at  present.  They  represent  four  groups,  all  striving 
for  supreme  power.  There  are  the  men  of  the  oli- 
garchy, represented  by  Pompey  and  Cicero,  actually 
holding  the  reins  of  government ;  and  Crassus, 
standing  for  the  aristocrats,  who  resent  their  claims ; 
Caesar,  foremost  among  the  Marians,  the  former 
opponents  of  Sulla  and  his  schemes;  and  Catiline,  at 
the  head  of  the  faction  which  included  the  host  of 
warriors  that  Sulla  had  settled  in  peaceful  pursuits 
throughout  Italy, — in  peaceful  pursuits  that  did  not 
at  all  suit  their  impetuous  spirits,  ever  eager  as  they 
were  for  some  revolution  that  would  plunge  them 
again  into  strife,  and  perchance  win  for  them  some 
spoil. 

The  consuls  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  Sulla  were 
Lepidus  and  Catulus,  who  now  fell  out  with  one 
another,  Lepidus  taking  the  part  of  the  Marians,  and 
Catulus  holding  with  the  aristocrats.  This  was  the 
same  Lepidus  who  had  opposed  the  burial  of  the 
dictator  Sulla  in  the  Campus  Martius.  As  soon  as 
the  Marians  saw  that  one  consul  was  ready  to  favor 
them,  there  was  great  excitement  among  the  portion 
of  the  community  that  looked  for  gain  in  confusion. 
Those  who  had  lost  their  riches  and  civic  rights, 
hoped  to  see  them  restored ;  young  profligates 


LONGING  FOR  REVOLUTION.  2O? 

trusted  that  in  some  way  they  might  find  means  to 
gratify  their  love  of  luxury;  and  the  people  in 
general,  who  had  no  other  reason,  thought  that 


CAIUS   JULIUS   CVESAR. 


after  the  three  years  of  the  calm  of  despotism,  it 
would  be  refreshing  to  see  some  excitement  in  the 
forum.  Lepidus  was  profuse  in  promises;  he  told 
the  beggars  that  he  would  again  distribute  free 


208        THE  MASTER   SPIRITS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

grain  ;  and  the  families  deprived  of  their  estates,  that 
they  might  soon  expect  to  enjoy  them  again.  Catu- 
lus  protested  in  vain,  and  the  civil  strife  constantly 
increased,  without  any  apparent  probability  that  the 
Senate,  now  weak  and  inefficient,  would  or  could 
successfully  interfere.  Finally  it  was  decreed  that 
Lepidus  and  Catulus  should  each  be  sent  to  the 
provinces  under  oath  not  to  turn  their  swords  against 
each  other. 

Lepidus  slowly  proceeded  to  carry  out  his  part  of 
this  decree,  but  Catulus  remained  behind  long 
enough  to  complete  a  great  temple,  which  towered 
above  the  forum  on  the  Capitoline  Hill.  The  founda- 
tions only  remain  now,  but  they  bear  an  inscrip- 
tion placed  there  by  order  of  the  senate,  testifying 
that  Catulus  was  the  consul  under  whom  the 
structure  was  completed.  Lepidus  did  not  consider 
his  oath  binding  long,  and  the  following  year  (B.C. 
77)  he  marched  straight  to  Rome  again,  announcing 
to  the  senators  that  he  came  to  re-establish  the 
rights  of  the  people  and  to  assume  the  dictatorship 
himself.  He  was  met  by  an  army  under  Pompey 
and  Catulus,  at  a  spot  near  the  Mulvian  bridge  and 
the  Campus  Martius,  almost  on  the  place  where  the 
fate  of  the  Roman  Empire  was  to  be  determined 
four  centuries  later  by  a  battle  between  Maxentius 
and  Constantine  (A.D.  312).  Lepidus  was  defeated 
and  forced  to  flee.  Shortly  after,  he  died  on  the 
island  of  Sardinia,  overcome  by  chagrin  and  sorrow. 
One  would  expect  to  read  of  a  new  proscription, 
after  this  success,  but  the  victors  did  not  resort  to 
that  terrible  vengeance.  Thus  Pompey  found  him- 
self at  the  head  of  Roman  affairs. 


POMPEY  AT   THE  HEAD.  2Og 

His  first  duty  was  to  march  against  the  remnant 
of  the  party  of  the  Marians.  They  had  joined  Ser- 
torius  in  Spain.  It  was  the  year  76  when  Pompey 
arrived  on  the  scene  of  his  new  operations.  He 
found  his  enemy  more  formidable  than  he  had  sup- 
posed, and  it  was  not  until  five  years  had  passed, 
and  Sertorius  had  been  assassinated,  that  he  was 
able  to  achieve  the  victory  and  scatter  the  army  of 
the  Marians.  Meantime  the  Romans  had  been  fear- 
ing that  Sertorius  would  actually  prove  strong 
enough  to  march  upon  the  capital  and  perhaps  over- 
whelm it.  Hardly  had  their  fears  in  this  respect 
been  quieted  than  they  found  themselves  menaced 
by  a  still  more  frightful  catastrophe. 

We  remember  how,  in  the  year  264  B.C.,  two 
young  Romans  honored  the  memory  of  their  father 
by  causing  men  to  fight  each  other  to  the  death  with 
swords  to  celebrate  his  funeral,  and  hints  from  time 
to  time  have  shown  how  the  Romans  had  become 
more  and  more  fond  of  seeing  human  beings  hack 
and  hew  each  other  in  the  amphitheatres.  The 
men  who  were  to  be  "  butchered  to  make  a  Roman 
holiday,"  as  the  poet  says,  were  trained  for  their 
horrid  work  with  as  much  system  as  is  now  used  in 
our  best  gymnasiums  to  fit  men  to  live  lives  of  happy 
peace,  if  not  with  more.  They  were  divided  into 
classes  with  particular  names,  according  to  the  arms 
they  wore,  the  hours  at  which  they  fought,  and 
their  modes  of  fighting,  and  great  were  the  pains 
that  their  instructors  took  to  make  them  perfect  in 
their  bloody  work.  Down  at  Capua,  that  celebrated 
centre  of  refinement  and  luxury,  there  was  a  school 


2 TO        THE  MASTER   SPIRITS  OF   THIS  AGE. 

of  gladiators,  kept  by  one  Lentulus,  who  hired  his 
fierce  pupils  out  to  the  nobles  to  be  used  at  games 
and  festivals. 

While  Pompey  was  away  engaged  with  Sertorius, 
the  enemies  of  Rome  everywhere  thought  it  a  favor- 
able moment  to  give  her  trouble,  and  these  gladi- 
ators conspired  in  the  year  73  to  escape  to  freedom, 
and  thus  cheat  their  captors  out  of  their  expected 
pleasures,  and  give  their  own  wives  and  children  a 
little  more  of  their  lives.  So  large  was  the  school 
that  two  hundred  engaged  in  the  plot,  though  only 
seventy-eight  were  successful  in  escaping.  They 
hurried  away  to  the  mountains,  armed  with  knives 
and  spits  that  they  had  been  able  to  snatch  from  the 
stalls  as  they  fled,  and,  directed  by  one  Spartacus 
who  had  been  leader  of  a  band  of  robbers,  found 
their  way  to  the  crater  of  Mount  Vesuvius,  not  a 
comfortable  resort  one  would  think;  but  at  that 
time  it  was  quite  different  in  form  from  what  it 
is  now,  the  volcano  being  extinct,  so  that  it  afforded 
many  of  the  advantages  of  a  fortified  town.  From 
every  quarter  the  hard-worked  slaves  flocked  to  the 
standard  of  Spartacus,  and  soon  he  found  himself  at 
the  head  of  a  large  army.  His  plan  was  to  cross  the 
Alps,  and  find  a  place  of  refuge  in  Gaul  or  in  his 
native  Thrace ;  but  his  brutalized  followers  thought 
only  of  the  present.  They  were  satisfied  if  they 
could  now  and  then  capture  a  rich  town,  and  for  a 
while  revel  in  luxuries;  if  they  could  wreak  their 
vengeance  by  forcing  the  Romans  themselves  to 
fight  as  gladiators;  or,  if  they  had  the  opportunity 
to  kill  those  to  whom  they  attributed  their  former 
distresses.  They  cared  not  to  follow  their  leader  to 


SPARTACUS  DEFEATED. 


211 


the  northward,  and  thus  his  wiser  plans  were  baffled ; 
but,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  he  laid  the  country  waste 
from  the  foot  of  the  Alps  to  the  most  southern 
extremity  of  the  toe  of  the  Italian  boot.  For  two 
years  he  was  able  to  keep  up  his  war  against  the 
Roman  people,  but  at  last  he  was  driven  to  the 
remotest  limits  of  Bruttium,  where  his  only  hope 


GLADIATORS. 


was  in  getting  over  to  Sicily,  in  the  expectation  of 
gaining  other  followers;  but  his  army  was  signally 
defeated  by  Crassus,  a  small  remnant  only  escaping 
to  the  northward,  where  they  were  exterminated  by 
Pompey,  then  returning  from  Spain  (B.C.  71).  From 
Capua  to  Rome  six  thousand  crosses,  each  bearing  a 
captured  slave,  showed  how  carefully  and  ruthlessly 
the  man-hunt  had  been  pursued  by  the  frightened 
and  exasperated  Romans.  Both  Crassus  and  Pompey 


212        THE  MASTER  SPIRITS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

claimed  the  credit  of  the  final  victory,  Pompey 
asserting  that  though  Crassus  had  scotched  the 
serpent,  he  had  himself  killed  it. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  year  71  Pompey  entered 
Rome  with  the  honor  of  a  triumph,  while  Crassus 
received  the  less  important  distinction  of  an  ovation,* 
as  it  was  called,  because  his  success  had  been  ob- 
tained over  slaves,  less  honorable  adversaries  than 
those  whom  Pompey  had  met.  Each  desired  to  be 
consul,  but  neither  was  properly  qualified  for  the 
office,  and  therefore  they  agreed  to  overawe  the 
senate  and  win  the  office  for  both,  each  probably 
thinking  that  at  the  first  good  opportunity  he  would 
get  the  better  of  the  other.  In  this  plan  they  were 
successful,  and  thus  two  aristocrats  came  to  the 
head  of  government,  and  the  oligarchy,  to  which  one 
of  them  belonged,  went  out  of  power,  and  soon 
Pompey,  who  all  the  time  posed  as  the  friend  of  the 
people,  proceeded  to  repeal  the  most  important  parts 
of  the  legislation  of  Sulla.  The  tribunes  were  re- 
stored, and  Pompey  openly  broke  with  the  aristoc- 
racy to  which  by  birth  he  belonged,  thus  beginning 
a  new  era,  for  the  social  class  of  a  man's  family  was 
no  longer  to  indicate  the  political  party  to  which  he 
should  give  his  adherence. 

£*  In  a  triumph  in  these  times,  the  victorious  general,  clad  in  a  robe 
embroidered  with  gold,  and  wearing  a  laurel  wreath,  solemnly  entered 
the  city  riding  in  a  chariot  drawn  -by  four  horses.  The  captives  and 
spoils  went  before  him,  and  the  army  followed.  He  passed  along  the 
Via  Sacra  on  the  Forum  Romanum,  and  went  up  to  the  Capitol  to 
sacrifice  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter.  J  In  the  ovation  the  general  entered 
the  city  on  foot,  wore  a  simple  toga,  and  a  wreath  of  myrtle,  and  was 
in  other  respects  not  so  conspicuously  honored  as  in  the  triumph. 
The  two  celebrations  differed  in  other  respects  also. 


XV. 

PROGRESS  OF  THE   GREAT   POMPEY. 

THE  master  spirits  of  this  remarkable  age  were 
now  in  full  action  on  the  stage,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
keep  the-eye  fixed  upon  all  of  them  at  once.  Now  one 
is  prominent  and  now  another ;  all  are  pushing  their 
particular  interests,  while  each  tries  to  make  it  ap- 
pear that  he  has  nothing  but  the  good  of  the  state 
at  heart.  Whenever  it  is  evident  that  a  certain 
cause  is  the  popular  one,  the  various  leaders,  op- 
posed on  most  subjects,  are  united  to  help  it,  in  the 
hope  of  catching  the  popular  breeze.  During  the 
consulship  of  Pompey  and  Catulus,  Pompey  was  the 
principal  Roman  citizen,  and  he  tried  to  make  sure 
that  his  prestige  should  not  be  lessened  when  he 
should  step  down  from  his  high  office. 

Crassus,  aristocrat  by  birth  and  aristocrat  by  choice, 
had  been  a  candidate  for  the  senate  in  opposition  to 
Pompey,  but  he  soon  found  that  his  interest  de- 
manded that  he  should  make  peace  with  his  powerful 
colleague,  and  as  he  did  it,  he  told  the  people  that 
he  did  not  consider  that  his  action  was  in  any  degree 
base  or  humiliating,  for  he  simply  made  advances  to 
one  whom  they  had  themselves  named  the  Great. 
Crowds  daily  courted  Pompey  on  account  of  his 


2l6         PROGRESS  OF  THE   GREAT  POMPEY. 

power;  but  a  multitude  equally  numerous  surrounded 
Crassus  for  his  wealth,  and  Cicero  on  account  of  his 
wonderful  oratory.  Even  Julius  Caesar,  the  strong 
Marian,  who  pronounced  a  eulogy  upon  his  aunt, 
the  widow  of  Marius,  seemed  also  to  pay  homage  to 
Pompey,  when,  a  year  later,  he  took  to  wife  Pompeia. 
a  relative  of  the  great  soldier  (B.C.  67). 

Both  Caesar  and  Pompey  saw  that  gross  corruption 
was  practised  by  the  chiefs  of  the  senate  when  they 
had  control  of  the  provinces,  and  knew  that  it  ought 
to  be  exposed  and  effectually  stopped,  but  Caesar  was 
the  first  to  take  action.  He  was  quickly  followed  by 
Pompey,  however,  who  encouraged  Cicero  to  de- 
nounce the  crimes  of  Verres  with  the  success  that 
we  have  already  noticed.  Cicero  loftily  exclaimed 
that  he  did  not  seek  to  chastise  a  single  wicked  man 
who  had  abused  his  authority  as  governor,  but  to 
extinguish  and  blot  out  all  wickedness  in  all  places, 
as  the  Roman  people  had  long  been  demanding;  but 
with  all  his  eloquence  he  was  not  able  to  make  the 
people  appreciate  the  fact  that  the  interests  of  Rome 
were  identical  with  the  well-being  anoj  prosperity  of 
her  allies,  distant  or  near  at  hand. 

Both  Crassus  and  Pompey  retired  from  the  con- 
sulship amid  the  plaudits  of  the  people  and  with  the 
continued  friendship  of  the  optimates.  Crassus,  out 
of  his  immense  income,  spread  a  feast  for  the  people 
on  ten  thousand  tables;  dedicated  a  tenth  of  his 
wealth  to  Hercules  ;  and  distributed  among  the  citi- 
zens enough  grain  to  supply  their  families  three 
months.  With  all  his  efforts,  however,  he  could  not 
gain  the  favor  which  Pompey  apparently  held  with 


RAVAGES  OF  THE  PIRATES. 

ease.  For  two  years  Pompey  assumed  royal  man 
ners,  and  gave  himself  up  to  the  enjoyment  of  his 
popularity,  but  then  beginning  to  fear  that  without 
some  new  evidence  of  genius  he  might  lose  the  ad- 
miration of  the  people,  he  began  to  make  broad 
plans  to  astonish  them. 

For  years  the  Mediterranean  Sea  had  been  infested 
by  daring  pirates,  who  at  last  made  it  unsafe  for  a 
Roman  noble  even  to  drive  to  his  sea-side  villa,  or  a 
merchant  to  venture  abroad  for  purposes  of  trade. 
Cities  had  been  ravaged,  and  the  enemies  of  Rome 
had  from  time  to  time  made  alliances  with  the  ma- 
rauders. The  pirates  dyed  their  sails  with  Tyrian 
purple,  they  inlaid  their  oars  with  silver,  and  they 
spread  gold  on  their  pennants,  so  rich  had  their 
booty  made  them.  Nor  were  they  less  daring  than 
rich;  they  had  captured  four  hundred  towns  of  im- 
portance, they  had  once  kidnapped  Caesar  himself, 
and  held  him  for  enormous  ransom,*  and  now  they 
threatened  to  cut  off  the  entire  supply  of  grain  that 
came  from  Africa,  Sardinia,  and  Sicily. 

The  crisis  was  evident  to  all,  and  in  it  Pompey  saw 

*  This  occurred  in  the  year  76  B.C.,  when  Caesar,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-four,  was  on  his  way  to  Rhodes,  intending  to  perfect  himself 
in  oratory  at  the  school  of  Apollonius  Molo,  the  teacher  of  Cicero. 
He  was  travelling  as  a  gentleman  of  rank,  and  was  captured  off 
Miletus.  After  a  captivity  of  six  weeks,  during  which  he  mingled 
freely  with  the  games  and  pastimes  of  the  pirates,  though  plainly 
assuring  them  that  he  should  one  day  hang  them  all,  Cxsar  was 
liberated,  on  payment  of  a  ransom  of  some  fifty  thousand  dollars. 
Good  as  his  word,  he  promptly  collected  a  fleet  of  vessels,  returned  to 
the  island,  seized  the  miscreants  as  they  were  dividing  their  plunder, 
carried  them  off  to  Pergamos,  and  had  them  crucified.  He  then  weni 
on  to  Rhodes,  and  practised  elocution  for  two  years, 


2l8          PROGRESS  OF  THE   GREAT  POMPEY. 

his  opportunity.  In  the  year  67,  he  caused  a  law  to 
be  introduced  by  the  tribune  Gabinius,  ordaining  that 
a  commander  of  consular  rank  should  be  appointed 
for  three  years,  with  absolute  power  over  the  sea  and 
the  coasts  about  it  for  fifty  miles  inland,  together 
with  a  fleet  of  two  hundred  sail,  with  officers,  sea- 
men,  and  supplies.  When  the  bill  had  passed, 
Gabinius  declared  that  there  was  but  one  man  fit 
to  exercise  such  remarkable  power,  and  it  was  con- 
ferred with  acclamations  upon  Pompey,  whom  he 
nominated.  The  price  of  grain  immediately  fell,  for 
every  one  had  confidence  that  the  dread  crisis  was 
passed.  The  people  were  right,  for  in  a  few  weeks 
the  pirates  had  all  been  brought  to  terms.  Pompey 
had  divided  the  sea  into  thirteen  parts,  and  in  each 
of  them  the  freebooters  had  been  encountered  in 
open  battle,  driven  into  creeks  and  captured,  or 
forced  to  take  refuge  in  their  castles  and  hunted  out 
of  them,  so  that  those  who  were  not  taken  had  sur- 
rendered. 

The  next  move  among  the  master  spirits  led  to 
the  still  greater  advancement  of  Pompey.  His  sup- 
porters at  Rome  managed  to  have  him  appointed  to 
carry  on  a  war  in  the  East.  In  the  year  74,  when 
other  enemies  of  the  republic  seized  the  opportunity 
to  rise  against  Rome,  Mithridates,  never  fully  con- 
quered, entered  upon  a  new  war.  Lucius  Licinius 
Lucullus,  who  had  gained  fame  in  the  former  struggle 
with  Mithridates,  was  sent  again  to  protect  Roman 
interests  in  Pontus.  He  completely  broke  the  power 
of  the  great  monarch,  in  spite  of  his  vast  prepara- 
tions for  the  struggle,  but,  under  a  pretext,  he  was 


CICERO  PRAISES  POMPEY,  2ig 

now  superseded  by  Pompey,  who  went  out  with  a 
feigned  appearance  of  reluctance,  to  pluck  the  fruit 
just  ready  to  drop  (B.C.  66).  Cicero  urged  Pompey 
to  accept  this  new  honor,*  and  Caesar,  who  enjoyed 
the  precedents  that  Pompey  had  established,  in 
adopting  monarchical  style,  was  now  glad  to  have  a 


A  ROMAN   POETESS. 


rival  removed  from  the  country,  that  he  might  have 
better  opportunity  to  perfect  his  own  plans. 

*  When  the  Manilian  law  which  enlarged  the  powers  of  Pompey  was 
under  discussion,  Cicero  made  his  first  address  to  the  Roman  people, 
and  though  vigorously  opposed  by  Hortensius  and  Catulus,  carried  the 
day  against  the  senate  and  the  optimates  whom  they  represented. 
This  oration  contains  a  panegyric  of  Pompey  for  suppressing  piracy, 
and  argues  that  a  public  servant  who  has  done  well  once  deserves  tg 
be  trusted  again. 


220         PROGRESS  OF  THE  GREAT  POMPEY. 

The  third  or  great  Mithridatic  war  lasted  from 
the  year  74,  when  Lucullus  was  sent  out,  to  61.  By 
the  terms  of  the  Manilian  law,  Pompey  went  out 
with  unlimited  power  over  the  whole  of  Asia,  as  far 
as  Armenia,  as  well  as  over  the  entire  Roman  forces  ; 
and  as  he  already  was  supreme  over  the  region  about 
the  Mediterranean  Sea,  he  was  practically  dictator 
throughout  all  of  the  dominions  of  the  republic.  He 
planned  his  first  campaign  with  so  much  skill  that 
he  cut  Mithridates  off  from  all  help  by  sea,  and  des- 
troyed every  hope  of  alliances  with  other  rulers.  So 
clearly  did  it  appear  to  the  Pontic  monarch  that 
resistance  would  be  vain,  that  he  sued  for  peace. 
Pompey  would  accept  no  terms  but  unconditional 
surrender,  however,  and  negotiations  were  broken  off. 
Mithridates  determined  to  avoid  battle,  but  Pompey 
finally  surprised  and  defeated  him  in  Lesser  Ar- 
menia, forcing  him  to  flight.  He  found  a  retreat 
in  the  mountainous  region  north  of  the  Euxine  Sea, 
where  Pompey  was  unable  to  follow  him.  There  he 
meditated  grand  schemes  against  the  Romans,  which 
he  was  utterly  unable  to  carry  out,  and  at  last  he  fell 
a  victim  to  the  malevolence  of  one  of  his  former 
favorites  (B.C.  63). 

Pompey  continued  his  conquering  progress  through- 
out Asia  Minor,  and  did  not  return  to  Rome  until  he 
had  subdued  Armenia,  Syria,  Phoenicia,  and  Pales- 
tine,* had  established  many  cities,  and  had  organized 

*  There  was  civil  war  in  Palestine  at  the  time,  and  the  king  surren- 
dered to  Pompey,  but  the  people  refused,  took  refuge  in  the  strong- 
hold of  the  temple,  and  were  only  overcome  after  a  seige  of  three 
months.  Pompey  explored  the  temple,  examined  the  golden  vessels, 
the  table  of  shew  bread,  and  the  candlesticks  in  their  places,  but  was 


FE&OCIO  US  CA  TIUNE.  22 1 

the  frontier  of  the  Roman  possessions  from  the 
Euxine  to  the  river  Jordan.  When  he  arrived  at 
Rome,  on  the  first  of  January,  61,  he  found  that 
affairs  had  considerably  changed  during  his  absence, 
and  it  was  not  easy  for  him  to  determine  what 
position  he  should  assume  in  relation  to  the  political 
parties.  Cicero  offered  him  his  friendship;  Cato, 
grandson  of  the  stern  old  censor,  and  an  influential 
portion  of  the  senate  opposed  him  ;  Crassus  and 
Lucullus,  too,  were  his  personal  enemies ;  and  Caesar, 
who  appeared  to  support  him,  had  really  managed 
to  prepar ;  for  him  a  secondary  position  in  the  state. 
On  the  list  day  of  September,  Pompey  celebrated 
the  most  splendid  triumph  that  the  city  had  ever 
seen,  and  with  it  the  glorious  part  of  his  life  ended. 
Over  three  hundred  captive  princes  walked  before 
his  chariot,  and  brazen  tablets  declared  that  he  had 
captured  a  thousand  fortresses,  many  small  towns, 
and  eight  hundred  ships  ;  that  he  had  founded 
thirty-nine  cities,  and  vastly  raised  the  public  revenue. 
The  year  following  the  departure  of  Pompey  for 
the  East  was  rendered  noteworthy  by  the  breaking 
out  of  a  conspiracy  that  will  never  be  forgotten  so 
long  as  the  writings  of  Cicero  and  Sallust  remain. 
These  were  times  of  treasons,  stratagems,  and  greed 
for  spoils.  Vice  and  immorality  were  rampant,  and 
among  the  vicious  and  dabased  none  had  fallen  lower 
than  Lucius  Sergius  Catiline,  a  ferocious  man  of 
powerful  body  and  strong  mind,  who  first  appears  as 

surprised  to  find  the  Holy  of  Holies  empty,  there  being  no  represen- 
tation of  a  deity.  He  reverently  refrained  from  touching  the  gold, 
the  spices,  and  the  money  that  he  saw,  and  ordered  the  place  to  be 
cleansed  and  purified  that  service  might  be  resumed. 


222          PROGRESS  OF  THE  GREAT  POMPEY. 

a  partisan  of  Sulla  and  an  active  agent  in  his  pro- 
scription. All  his  powers  were  perverted  to  evil,  and 
when  to  his  natural  viciousness  there  was  added  the 
intensity  of  disappointed  political  ambition,  he  was 
ready  to  plunge  his  country  into  the  most  desperate 
strife  to  gratify  his  hate.  He  stands  for  the  worst 
vices  of  this  wretched  age.  He  had  been  a  provin- 
cial governor,  and  in  Africa  had  perpetrated  all  the 
crimes  that  Cicero  could  impute  to  a  Verres,  and 
thus  had  proclaimed  himself  a  villain  of  the  deepest 
dye,  both  abroad  and  at  home. 

Gathering  about  him  the  profligate  nobles  and  the 
criminals  who  had  nothing  to  lose  and  every  thing  to 
gain  by  revolution,  Catiline  plotted  to  murder  the 
consuls  and  seize  the  government  ;  but  his  attempt 
was  foiled,  and  he  waited  for  a  more  favorable  op- 
portunity. Two  years  later  he  was  defeated  by 
Cicero  as  candidate  for  the  consulship,  and  the  plot 
was  renewed,  it  being  then  determined  to  add  the 
burning  of  the  city  to  the  other  atrocities  contem- 
plated. Cicero  discovered  the  scheme,  and  unveiled 
its  horrid  details  in  four  orations  ;  but  again  the 
miserable  being  was  permitted  to  escape  justice.  He 
was  present  and  listened  in  rage  to  the  invective  of 
Cicero  until  he  could  bear  it  no  longer,  and  then 
rushed  wildly  out  and  joined  his  armed  adherents, 
an  open  enemy  of  the  state.  His  plot  failed  in  the 
city  through  imprudence  of  the  conspirators  and  the 
skill  of  Cicero,  and  he  himself  fled,  hoping  to  reach 
Gaul.  He  was,  however,  hemmed  in  by  the  Roman 
army  and  killed  in  a  battle.  Catiline's  head  was  sent 
to  Rome  to  assure  the  government  that  he  was  no 


CICERO'S  ENEMY,  CLOD  I  US.  22$ 

more.  Cicero,  who  had  caused  nine  of  the  con- 
spirators  to  be  put  to  death,*  now  laid  down  his 
consular  authority  amid  the  plaudits  of  the  people, 
who,  under  the  lead  of  Cato  and  Catulus,  hailed  him 
as  the  Father  of  his  Country. 

Cicero  was  apparently  spoiled  by  his  success. 
Carried  away  by  his  own  oratorical  ability,  he  too 
often  reminded  the  people  in  his  long  and  eloquent 
speeches  of  the  great  deeds  that  he  had  done  for  the 
country.  They  cheered  him  as  he  spoke,  but  after 
this  they  never  raised  him  to  power  again. 

Just  about  this  time  a  noble  named  Publius  Clo- 
dius  Pulcher,  who  was  a  demagogue  of  the  worst 
moral  character,  in  the  pursuance  of  his  base  in- 
trigues, committed  an  act  of  sacrilege  by  entering 
the  house  of  Caesar,  disguised  as  a  woman,  during 
the  celebration  of  the  mysteries  of  the  Bona  Dea,  to 
which  men  were  never  admitted.  He  was  tried  for 
the  impiety,  and,  through  the  efforts  of  Cicero,  was 
almost  convicted,  though  he  managed  to  escape  by 
bribery.  He  was  ever  afterward  a  determined  enemy 
of  the  great  orator,  and,  by  the  aid  of  Pompey,  Caesar, 
and  Crassus,  finally  succeeded  in  having  him  con- 
demned for  putting  to  death  the  Catilinian  conspira- 
tors without  due  process  of  law.  Cicero  does  not 
appear  manly  in  the  story  of  this  affair.  He  left 
Rome,  fearing  to  face  the  result ;  and  after  he  had 

*  Under  Roman  law  no  citizen  could  legally  be  put  to  death  except 
by  the  sanction  of  the  Comitia  Curiata,  the  sovereign  assembly  of  the 
people,  though  it  often  happened  that  the  regulation  was  ignored.  If 
nobody  dared  or  cared  to  object,  no  notice  was  taken  of  ihe  irregu- 
larity, but  we  shall  see  that  Cicero  paid  dearly  for  his  action  at  this 
time. 


224         PROGRESS  OF  THE  GREAT  POMPEY. 

gone  Clodius  caused  a  bill  to  be  passed  by  which  he 
was  declared  a  public  enemy,  and  every  citizen  was 
forbidden  to  give  him  fire  or  water  within  four  hun- 
dred miles  of  Rome  (spring  of  58).  He  found  his 
way  to  Brundusium  and  thence  to  Greece,  where  he 
passed  his  time  in  the  most  unmanly  wailings  and 
gloomy  forebodings.  His  property  was  confiscated, 
his  rich  house  on  the  Palatine  Hill  and  his  villas 
being  given  over  to  plunder  and  destruction.  Strange 
as  it  appears,  Cicero  was  recalled  the  next  year,  and 
entered  the  city  amid  the  hearty  plaudits  of  the 
changeful  people,  though  his  self-respect  was  gone 
and  his  spirit  broken. 

Meantime,  Caesar  had  been  quietly  pushing  him- 
self to  the  front.  He  had  returned  from  Spain, 
where  he  had  been  governor,  at  about  the  time  that 
Pompey  had  returned  from  the  East.  He  reconciled 
that  great  warrior  to  Crassus  (called  from  his  im- 
mense wealth  Dives,  the  rich),  and  with  the  two  made 
a  secret  arrangement  to  control  the  government. 
This  was  known  as  the  First  Triumvirate*  or  gov- 
ernment of  three  men,  though  it  was  only  a  coali- 
tion, and  did  not  strictly  deserve  the  name  given  it 
(B.C.  60).  Caesar  reaped  the  first-fruits  of  the  league, 
as  he  intended,  by  securing  the  office  of  consul, 
through  the  assistance  of  his  colleagues,  whose  influ- 
ence proved  irresistible. 

Entering  upon  his  office  in  the  year  59,  Caesar 
very  soon  obtained  the  good-will  of  all, — first  win- 

*  Each  of  the  three  pledged  himself  not  to  speak  nor  to  act  except 
to  subserve  the  common  interest  of  all,  though  of  course  they  were 
not  sincere  in  their  promises  of  mutual  support. 


226         PROGRESS  OF  THE  GREAT  POMPEY. 

ning  the  people  by  proposing  an  agrarian  law  divid- 
ing the  public  lands  among  them.  This  was  the  last 
law  of  this  sort,  as  that  of  Cassius  (B.C.  486)  had  been 
the  first.*  He  rewarded  Crassus  by  means  of  a  law 
remitting  one  third  of  the  sum  that  the  publicans 
who  had  agreed  to  farm  the  revenues  in  Asia  Minor 
had  contracted  to  pay  to  the  state  ;  and  satisfied 
Pompey  by  a  ratification  of  all  his  acts  in  the  East. 
The  distribution  of  the  lands  among  the  people  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  Pompey  and  Crassus. 

At  the  end  of  his  term  of  office  Caesar  was  made 
governor  of  Gaul,  an  orifice  which  he  sought(jio  more 
for  the  opportunity  it  afforded  of  gaining  renown  by 
conquering  those  ancient  enemies  who  had  formerly 
visited  Rome  with  such  dire  devastation,  than)  be- 
cause he  hoped  to  win  for  himself  an  army  and 
partisans  who  would  be  useful  in  carrying  out  further 
ambitious  ends. 

Caesar  now  entered  upon  a  wonderful  career  of 
conquest,  which  lasted  nine  years.  The  story  of  what 
he  accomplished  during  the  first  seven  is  given  in  his 
"  Commentaries,"  as  they  are  called,  which  are  still 
read  in  schools,  on  account  of  the  incomparable  sim- 
plicity, naturalness,  and  purity  of  the  style  in  which 
they  are  written,  as  well  as  because  they  seem  to 
give  truthful  accounts  of  the  events  they  describe. 
Sixty  years  before  this  time  the  Romans  had  pos- 
sessed themselves  of  a  little  strip  of  Gaul  south  of 
the  Alps,  which  was  known  as  the  Province,f  and 
though  they  had  ever  since  thought  that  there  was  a 
very  important  region  to  the  north  and  west  that 
*  See  page  83.  f  See  pages  166  and  182. 


CAESAR   CONQUERS  GAUL.  22? 

might  be  conquered,  they  made  no  great  effort  to 
gain  it.  Caesar  was  now  to  win  imperishable  laurels 
by  effecting  what  had  been  before  only  vaguely 
dreamed  of.  He  first  made  himself  master  of  the 
country  of  the  Helvetii  (modern  Switzerland),  de- 
feated the  Germans  under  their  famous  general 
Ariovistus,  and  subjected  the  Belgian  confederacy. 
The  frightful  carnage  involved  in  these  campaigns 
cannot  be  described,  and  the  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  brave  barbarians  who  were  sacrificed  to  the 
extension  of  Roman  civilization  are  enough  to  make 
one  shudder.  When  the  despatches  of  Caesar  an- 
nouncing his  successes  reached  Rome,  the  senate,  on 
motion  of  Cicero,  though  against  the  protestations  of 
Cato,  ordained  that  a  grand  public  thanksgiving, 
lasting  fifteen  days,  should  be  celebrated  (B.C.  57). 
This  was  an  unheard-of  honor,  the  most  ostentatious 
thanksgiving  of  the  kind  before — that  given  to  Pom- 
pey,  after  the  close  of  the  war  against  Mithridates — • 
having  lasted  but  ten  days. 

Pompey  and  Crassus  had  fallen  out  during  the  ab- 
sence of  Caesar,  and  he  now  invited  them  to  meet 
and  consult  at  Lucca,  at  the  foot  of  the  Apennines, 
just  north  of  Pisa,  where  (April,  56)  he  held  a  sort  of 
court,  hundreds  of  Roman  senators  waiting  upon 
him  to  receive  the  bribes  with  which  he  ensured  the 
success  of  his  measures  during  his  absences  in  the 
field.*  Here  the  three  agreed  that  Pompey  should 

*  Pompey  had  left  Rome  ostensibly  for  the  purpose  of  arranging  for 
supplies  of  grain  from  Africa  and  Sardinia.  lie  was  followed  by 
many  of  his  most  noted  adherents,  the  conference  counting  more  than 
two  hundred  senators  and  sixscore  lictors.  Caesar,  like  a  mighty 


228         PROGRESS  OF  THE  GREAT  POMPEY. 

rule  Spain,  Crassus  Syria,  and  Csesar  Gaul,  which 
he  had  made  his  own.  Caesar  still  kept  on  with  his 
conquests,  meeting  desperate  resistance,  however, 
from  the  hordes  of  barbarians,  who  would  not  remain 
conquered,  but  engaged  in  revolts  that  caused  him 
vast  trouble  and  the  loss  of  large  numbers  of  soldiers. 
Incidentally  to  his  other  wars,  he  made  two  incur- 
sions into  Britain,  the  home  of  our  forefathers  (B.C. 
55  and  54),  and  nominally  conquered  the  people,  but 
it  was  not  a  real  subjugation.  Shakespeare  did  not 
make  a  mistake  when  he  put  into  the  mouth  of  the 
queen-wife  of  Cymbeline  the  words : 

*     *     *     "  A  kind  of  conquest 

Caesar  made  here  ;  but  made  not  here  his  brag 

Of  '  came'  and  '  saw*  and  '  overcame,'  " 

and  certainly  the  brave  Britons  did  not  continue  to 
obey  their  self-styled  Roman  "  rulers." 

In  the  sixth  year  of  Caesar's  campaigns  in  Gaul,  it 
seemed  as  if  all  was  to  be  lost  to  the  Romans.  There 
arose  a  young  general  named  Vercingetorix,  who  was 
much  abler  than  any  leader  the  Gauls  had  ever  op- 
posed to  their  enemies,  and  he  united  them  as  they 
had  never  been  united  before.  This  man  persuaded 
his  countrymen  to  lay  their  own  country  waste,  in 
order  that  it  might  not  afford  any  abiding  place  for 
the  Romans,  but  contrary  to  his  intentions  one  town 
that  was  stongly  fortified  was  left,  and  to  that  Caesar 

magician,  caused  the  discordant  spirits  to  act  in  concert.  The  power 
of  the  triumvirs  is  shown  by  the  change  that  came  over  public  opinion, 
and  the  calmness  with  which  their  acts  were  submitted  to,  though  it 
was  evident  that  the  historic  form  of  government  was  to  be  overturned, 
and  a  monarchy  established. 


VERCINGETORIX,    THE    GENUINE   KNIGHT.      22$ 

laid  siege,  finally  taking  it  and  butchering  all  the 
men,  women,  and  children  that  it  contained.  Ver- 
cingetorix  then  fortified  himself  at  Alesia  (southeast 
of  Paris),  where  he  was,  of  course,  besieged  by  the 
Romans,  but  soon  Caesar  found  his  own  forces  at- 
tacked in  the  rear,  and  surrounded  by  a  vast  army  of 
Gauls,  who  had  come  to  the  relief  of  their  leader. 
In  the  face  of  such  odds,  he  succeeded  in  vanquish- 
ing the  enemy,  and  took  the  place,  achieving  the 
most  wonderful  act  of  his  genius.  The  conquered 
chief  was  reserved  to  grace  a  Roman  triumph,  and  to 
die  by  the  hand  of  a  Roman  executioner.*  The  fate 
of  Gaul  was  now  certain,  and  Caesar  found  compara- 
tively little  difficulty  in  subduing  the  remaining 
states,  the  last  of  which  was  Aquitania,  the  flat  and 
uninteresting  region  in  the  southwest  of  modern 
France,  watered  by  the  Garonne  and  washed  by  the 
Atlantic.  The  conqueror  treated  the  Gauls  with 
mildness,  and  endeavored  in  every  way  to  makt 
them  adopt  Roman  habits  and  customs.  As  they 
had  lost  all  hope  of  resisting  him,  they  calmly  ac- 
cepted the  situation,  and  the  foundation  of  the 
subsequent  Romanizing  of  the  west  of  Europe  was 
laid.  Three  million  Gauls  had  been  conquered,  a 

*  The  historian  Mommsen  says  of  this  unfortunate  "barbarian": 
"As  after  a  day  of  gloom  the  sun  breaks  through  the  clouds  at  its 
setting,  so  destiny  bestows  on  nations  in  their  decline  a  last  great  man. 
Thus  Hannibal  stands  at  the  close  of  the  Phoenician  history  and 
Vercingetorix  at  the  close  of  the  Celtic.  They  were  not  all  to  save  the 
nations  to  which  they  belonged  from  a  foreign  yoke,  but  they  spared 
them  the  last  remaining  disgrace — an  ignominious  fall.  .  .  . 
whole  ancient  world  presents  no  more  genuine  knight  [than  Vercin- 
getorix], whether  as  regards  his  essential  character  or  his  outward 
appearance." 


230 


PROGRESS  OF  THE   GREA  T  POMPE  Y. 


million  had  been  butchered,  and  another  million 
taken  captive,  while  eight  hundred  cities,  centres  of 
active  life  and  places^ of  the  enjoyment  of  those 
social  virtues  for  which  the  rough  inhabitants  of  the 
region  were  noted,  had  been  destroyed.  Legions  of 
Roman  soldiers  had  been  cut  to  pieces  in  accom- 
plishing this  result,  the  influence  of  which  upon  the 
history  of  Europe  can  hardly  be  over-estimate, - 
Caesar  had  completely  eclipsed  the  military  prestige 
of  his  rival,  Pompey  the  Great. 


XVI. 

HOW    THE    TRIUMVIRS    CAME    TO    UNTIMELY   ENDS. 

IT  was  agreed  at  the  conference  of  Lucca  that 
Pompey  should  rule  Spain,  but  it  did  not  suit  his 
plans  to  go  to  that  distant  country.  He  preferred 
to  remain  at  Rome,  where  he  thought  that  he  might 
do  something  that  would  establish  his  influence  with 
the  people,  and  give  him  the  advantage  over  his  col- 
leagues that  they  were  each  seeking  to  get  over  him. 
In  order  to  court  popularity,  he  built  the  first  stone 
theatre  that  Rome  had  ever  seen,  capable  of  accom- 
modating the  enormous  number  of  forty  thousand 
spectators,  and  opened  it  with  a  splendid  exhibition 
(B.C.  55).*  Day  after  day  the  populace  were  ad- 

*  This  theatre  was  built  after  the  model  of  one  that  Pompey  had 
seen  at  Mitylene,  and  stood  between  the  Campus  Martius  and  Circus 
Flaminius.  Adjoining  it  was  a  hall  affording  shelter  for  the  specta- 
tors in  bad  weather,  in  which  Julius  Caesar  was  assassinated.  The 
Roman  theatres  had  no  roofs,  and,  in  early  times,  no  seats.  At  this 
period  there  were  seats  of  stone  divided  by  broad  passages  for  the 
convenience  of  the  audience  in  going  in  and  out.  A  curtain,  which 
was  drawn  down  instead  of  up,  served  to  screen  the  actors  from  the 
spectators.  Awnings  were  sometimes  used  to  protect  the  audience 
from  rain  and  sun.  A  century  before  this  time  the  Senate  had 
stopped  the  construction  of  a  theatre,  and  prohibited  dramatic  exhi- 
bitions as  subversive  of  good  morals.  The  actors  usually  wore  masks. 
See  page  159. 


232  HOW  THE  TRIUMVIRS  CAME  TO  AN  END. 

mitted,  and  on  each  occasion  new  games  and  plays 
were  prepared  for  their  gratification.  For  the  first 
time  a  rhinoceros  was  shown ;  eighteen  elephants 
were  killed  by  fierce  Libyan  hunters,  and  five 
hundred  African  lions  lost  their  lives  in  the  combats 
to  which  they  were  forced  ;  the  vehement,  tragic 
actor  ^Esopus,  then  quite  aged,  came  out  of  his 
retirement  for  the  occasion,  and  uttered  his  last 
words  on  the  stage,  the  juncture  being  all  the  more 
remarkable  from  the  fact  that  his  strength  failed  him 
in  the  midst  of  a  very  emphatic  part ;  gymnasts  con- 
tended, gladiators  fought  to  the  death,  and  the  crowd 
cheered,  but,  alas  for  Pompey !  the  cheers  expressed 
merely  temporary  enjoyment  at  the  scenes  before 
them,  and  did  not  at  all  indicate  that  he  had  been 
received  to  their  hearts. 

Crassus,  in  the  meantime,  was  thinking  that  he  too 
must  accomplish  something  great  or  he  would  be 
left  behind  by  both  of  his  associates.  He  reflected 
that  Caesar  had  won  distinction  in  Gaul,  and  Pompey 
by  overcoming  the  pirates  and  conquering  the  East, 
and  determined  to  show  his  skill  as  a  warrior  in  his 
new  province,  Parthia.  There  was  no  cause  for  war 
against  the  people  of  that  distant  land,  but  a  cause 
might  easily  be  found,  or  a  war  begun  without  one, 
the  great  object  aimed  at  being  the  extension  of  the 
sovereignty  of  Rome,  and  marking  the  name  of  Cras- 
sus high  on  the  pillar  of  fame.  This  would  surely, 
he  thought,  give  him  the  utmost  popularity.  Thus, 
in  the  year  54,  he  set  out  for  Syria,  and  the  world 
saw  each  of  the  triumvirs  busily  engaged  in  pushing 
his  own  cause  in  his  own  way.  Ten  years  later  not 


234  HOW  THE  TRIUMVIRS  CAME  TO  AN  END. 

one  of  them  was  alive  to  enjoy  that  which  they  had 
all  so  earnestly  sought. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  Crassus  minutely  in 
his  campaign.  He  spent  a  winter  in  Syria,  and  in 
the  spring  of  53  set  out  for  the  still  distant  East, 
crossing  the  Euphrates,  and  plunging  into  the  desert 
wastes  of  old  Mesopotamia,  where  he  was  betrayed 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  and  lost,  not  far  from 
Carrhae  (Charran  or  Haran),  the  City  of  Nahor,  to 
which  the  patriarch  Abraham  migrated  with  his 
family  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees.  Thus  there  re- 
mained but  two  of  the  three  ambitious  seekers  of 
popular  applause. 

Pompey  had  been  in  some  degree  attached  to 
Caesar  through  his  daughter  Julia,  whom  he  had 
married  ;  but  she  died  in  the  same  year  that  Crassus 
.went  to  the  East,  and  from_that  time  he  gravitated 
toward  the  aristocrats,  with  whom  his  former  affilia- 
tions had  been.  The  ten  years  of  Caesar's  govern- 
ment were  to  expire  on  the  1st  of  January,  48,  and 
it  became  important  for  him  to  obtain  the  office  of 
consul  for  the  following  year;'  but  the  senate  and 
Pompey  were  equally  interested  to  have  him  de- 
prived of  the  command  of  the  army  before  receiving 
any  new  appointment.  The.reasgr^for  this  was  that 
Cato*  had  declared  that  as  soon  as  Caesar  should 

*  This  Cato  was  great-grandson  of  Cato  the  Censor  (see  page  152), 
was  a  man  who  endeavored  to  remind  the  world  constantly  of  his 
illustrious  descent  by  imitating  the  severe  independence  of  his  great 
ancestor,  and  by  assuming  marked  peculiarity  of  dress  and  behavior. 
His  life,  blighted  by  an  early  disappointment  in  love,  was  unfortu- 
nate to  the  last.  He  was  a  consistent,  but  often  ridiculous,  leader  of 
the  minority  opposed  to  the  triumvirs. 


C&SAR  POPULAR  WITH  HIS  ARMY.         235 

become  a  private  citizen  he  would  bring  him  to 
trial  for  illegal  acts  of  which  his  enemies  accused 
him ;  and  it  was  plain  to  him,  no  less  than  to  all  the 
world,  that  if  Pompey  were  in  authority  at  the  time, 
conviction  would  certainly  follow  such  a  trial.  One 
of  Cicero's  correspondents  said  on  this  subject: 
"  Pompey  has  absolutely  determined  not  to  allow 
Caesar  to  be  elected  consul  on  any  terms  except  a 
previous  resignation  of  his  army  and  his  government, 
while  Caesar  is  convinced  that  he  must  inevitably 
fall  if  he  has  once  let  go  his  army." 

In  the  year  50,  Caesar  went  into  Cisalpine  Gaul, 
that  is,  into  the  region  which  is  now  known  as 
Northern  Italy,  and  was  received  as  a  great  con- 
queror. He  then  went  over  the  mountains  to  Farther 
Gaul  and  reviewed  his  army — the  army  that  he  had 
so  often  led  to  victory.  He  did  not  lose  sight  of  the 
fact  that  it  was  now,  more  than  ever  before,  neces- 
sary for  him  to  have  some  one  in  Rome  who  would 
look  out  for  his  interests  in  his  abscences,  and  he 
bethought  himself  of  a  man  whom  he  had  known 
from  his  youth,  Caius  Scribonius  Curio  by  name,  a 
spendthrift  whom  he  had  vainly  tried  to  inspire  with 
higher  ambition  than  the  mere  gratification  of  his 
appetites.  He  was  married  to  Fulvia,  a  scheming 
woman  of  light  character,  widow  of  Clodius  (who 
afterwards  become  wife  of  Marc  Antony),  and  he  was 
harassed  by  enormous  debts.  Though  Curio  was 
allied  to  the  party  of  Pompey,  Cassar  won  him  over 
by  paying  his  debts,*  and  he  then  began  cautiously 

*  The  debts  of  this  young  man  have  been  estimated  as  high  as 
$2,500,000,  and  their  vastness  shows  by  contrast  how  wealthy  private 
citizens  sometimes  became  at  this  epoch. 


236  HOW  THE  TRIUMVIRS   CAME  TO  AN  END. 

to  turn  his  back  upon  his  former  associates.  At 
first,  he  pretended  to  act  against  Caesar  as  usual; 
then  he  cautiously  assumed  the  appearance  of 
neutrality ;  and,  when  the  proper  opportunity  arrived, 
he  threw  all  the  weight  of  his  influence  in  favor  of 
the  master  to  whom  he  had  sold  himself.  Curio  was 
not  the  only  person  whom  Caesar  bought,  for  he  dis- 
tributed immense  sums  among  other  citizens  of  influ- 
ence, as  he  had  not  hesitated  to  do  before,  and  they 
quietly  interposed  objectionsto  any  movement  against 
him,  though  outwardly  holding  to  Pompey's  party. 

The  senate,  assisted  by  the  solemn  jugglery  of  the 
pontiffs,  who  had  charge  of  the  calendar  and  were 
accustomed  to  shorten  or  lengthen  the  year  accord- 
ing as  their  political  inclinations  impelled  them,  pro- 
posed to  weaken  Caesar's  position  by  obliging  him  to 
resign  his  authority  November  I3th,  though  his  term 
did  not  expire,  as  we  know,  until  the  following  January. 

Under  these  circumstances,  Curio,  then  one  of  the 
tribunes  of  the  people,  began  his  tactics  by  plausibly 
urging  that  it  would  be  only  fair  that  Pompey,  who 
was  not  far  from  the  city  at  the  head  of  an  army, 
should  also  give  up  his  authority  at  the  same  time 
before  entering  the  city.  Pompey  had  no  intention 
of  doing  this,  though  everybody  saw  that  it  was 
reasonable,  and  Curio  took  courage  and  went  a  step 
farther,  denouncing  him  as  evidently  designing  to 
make  himself  tyrant.*  However,  in  order  to  keep 

*  A  tyrant  was  simply  a  ruler  with  dictatorial  powers,  and  it  was 
not  until  he  abused  his  authority  that  he  became  the  odious  character 
indicated  by  the  modern  meaning  of  the  title  ;  but  any  thing  that 
looked  like  a  return  to  the  government  of  a  king  was  hateful  to  the 
Romans. 


CURIO'S  CRAFTY  CHANGE.  237 

up  his  appearance  of  impartiality,  he  approved  a 
declaration  that  unless  both  generals  should  lay 
down  their  authority,  they  ought  to  be  denounced 
as  public  enemies,  and  that  war  should  be  immedi- 
ately declared  against  them.  Pompey  became  indig- 
nant at  this.  Finally  it  was  decided  that  each  com- 
mander should  be  ordered  to  give  up  one  legion,  to  be 
used  against  the  Parthians,  in  a  war  which  it  was  pre- 
tended would  soon  open.  Pompey  readily  assented, 
but  craftily  managed  to  perform  his  part  without 
any  loss  ;  for  he  called  upon  Caesar  to  return  to  him 
a  legion  that  he  had  borrowed  three  years  before. 
The  senate  then  sent  both  legions  to  Capua  instead 
of  to  Asia,  intending,  in  due  time,  to  use  them 
against  Csesar.  Caesar  gave  up  the  two  legions 
willingly,  because  he  thought  that  with  the  help  of 
the  army  that  remained,  and  with  the  assistance  of 
the  citizens  whom  he  had  bribed,  he  would  be  able 
to  take  care  of  himself  in  any  emergency,  but  never- 
theless he  endeavored  to  bind  the  soldiers  of  these 
legions  more  firmly  to  him  by  giving  a  valuable 
present  to  each  one  as  he  went  away.*  Not  long 
after  this  Curio  went  to  Ravenna  to  consult  Caesar. 

*  One  of  Cicero's  correspondents  writing  in  January,  50,  says  in  a 
postscript :  "I  told  you  above  that  Curio  was  freezing,  but  he  finds 
it  warm  enough  just  at  present,  everybody  being  hotly  engaged  in 
pulling  him  to  pieces.  Just  because  he  failed  to  get  an  intercalary 
month,  without  the  slightest  ado  he  has  stepped  over  to  the  popular 
side,  and  begun  to  harangue  in  favor  of  Caesar." 

In  replying  to  this,  Cicero  wrote  :  "  The  paragraph  you  added  was 
indeed  a  stab  from  the  point  of  your  pen.  What  !  Curio  now  become 
a  supporter  of  Caesar.  Who  could  ever  have  expected  this  but  myself  ? 
for,  upon  my  life,  I  really  did  expect  it.  Good  heavens  !  how  I  miss 
our  laughing  together  over  it." 


HOW  THE  TRIUMVIRS  CAME  TO  AN  END. 

We  see  on  our  maps  a  little  stream  laid  down  as 
the  boundary  between  Italy  and  Gaul.  It  is  called 
the  Rubicon  ;  but  when  we  go  to  Italy  and  look  for 
the  stream  itself  we  do  not  find  it  so  easily,  because 
there  are  at  least  two  rivers  that  may  be  taken  for  it. 
However,  it  is  not  of  much  importance  for  the  pur- 
poses of  history  which  was  actually  the  boundary. 
North  of  the  Rubicon  we  see  the  ancient  city  of 
Ravenna,  which  stood  in  old  times  like  Venice,  on 
islands,  and  like  it  was  intersected  in  all  directions 
by  canals  through  which  the  tide  poured  volumes  of 
purifying  salt  water  twice  every  day.  Now  the 
canals  are  all  filled  up,  and  the  city  is  four  miles 
from  the  sea,  so  large  have  been  the  deposits  from 
the  muddy  waters  that  flow  down  the  rivers  into  the 
Adriatic  at  that  place.  Thirty-three  miles  south  of 
Ravenna  and  nine  miles  from  the  Rubicon,  the  map 
shows  us  another  ancient  town  called  Ariminum, 
connected  directly  with  Rome  by  the  Flaminian 
road,  which  was  built  some  two  hundred  years  before 
the  time  of  which  we  are  writing.  Ravenna  was  the 
last  town  in  the  territory  of  Caesar  on  the  way  to 
Rome,  and  there  he  took  his  position  to  watch 
proceedings,  for  it  was  not  allowed  him  to  leave  his 
province. 

On  the  first  of  January,  49,  Curio  arrived  at  Rome 
with  a  letter  from  Caesar  offering  to  give  up  his 
command  provided  Pompey  would  do  the  same. 
The  consuls  at  that  time  were  partisans  of  Pompey, 
and  they  at  first  refused  to  allow  the  letter  to  be 
read ;  but  the  tribunes  of  the  people  were  in  favor 
of  Caesar,  and  they  forced  the  senators  to  listen  to  it 


e« 

S| 


240  HOW  THE  TRIUMVIRS  CAME  TO  AN  END. 

A  violent  debate  followed,  and  it  was  finally  voted 
that  unless  Caesar  should  disband  his  army  within  a 
certain  time  he  should  be  considered  an  enemy  of 
the  state,  and  be  treated  accordingly.  On  the  sixth 
of  the  same  month  the  power  of  dictators  was  given 
to  the  consuls,  and  the  two  tribunes  who  favored 
Caesar — one  of  whom  was  Marc  Antony — fled  to  him 
in  disguise,  forthere  was  no  safety  for  them  in  Rome. 

Now  there  was  war.  On  the  one  side  we  have 
Pompey,  proud  and  confident,  but  unprepared  be- 
cause he  was  so  confident ;  and  on  the  other,  Caesar, 
cool  and  unperturbed,  relying  not  only  on  his  army, 
but  also  upon  the  friends  that  his  money  and  tact 
had  made  among  the  soldiers  with  him,  no  less  than 
among  those  at  Capua  and  elsewhere,  upon  which 
his  opponent  also  depended. 

The  moment  is  one  that  has  been  fixed  in  the 
memory  of  men  for  all  time  by  a  proverbial  expres- 
sion based  upon  an  apochryphal  event  that  might 
well  have  happened  upon  the  banks  of  the  little 
Rubicon.  As  soon  as  Caesar  heard  of  the  action  of 
the  senate  he  assembled  his  soldiers  and  asked  them 
if  they  would  support  him.  They  replied  that  they 
would  follow  him  wherever  he  commanded.  Th~ 
story  runs  that  he  then  ordered  the  army  to  advance 
upon  Ariminum,  but  that  when  he  arrived  at  the 
little  dividing  river  he  ordered  a  halt,  and  meditated 
upon  his  course.  He  knew  that  when  he  crossed 
that  line  blood  would  surely  flow  from  thousands  of 
Romans,  and  he  asked  himself  whether  he  was  right 
in  bringing  such  woes  upon  his  countrymen,  and 
how  his  act  would  be  represented  in  history. 


POMPEY  STAMPS  IN  VAIN.  241 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  great  conqueror 
entertained  thoughts  like  these,  for  he  was  a  writer 
of  history  as  well  as  one  of  the  mightiest  makers  of 
it ;  but  he  mentions  nothing  of  the  sort  in  his  own 
story  of  the  advance,  and  we  may  well  doubt  whether 
it  was  not  invented  by  Suetonius,  or  some  other  his- 
torian, who  wished  to  make  his  account  as  picturesque 
as  possible.  It  is  said  that  after  these  thoughts 
Caesar  exclaimed  :  "  The  die  is  cast ;  let  us  go  where 
the  gods  and  the  injustice  of  our  enemies  direct  us!  " 
He  then  urged  his  charger  through  the  stream. 

There  had  been  confusion  in  the  capital  many  a 
time  before,  but  probably  never  was  there  such  a 
commotion  as  arose  when  it  was  known  that  the 
conqueror  of  Gaul,  the  man  who  had  for  years 
marched  through  that  great  region  as  a  mighty 
monarch,  was  on  the  way  towards  it.  That  the 
consuls  were  endowed  with  dictatorial  power  for 
the  emergency,  availed  little.  A  few  days  before, 
some  one  had  asked  Pompey  what  he  should  do  fof 
an  army  if  Caesar  should  leave  his  province  with  hi» 
soldiers,  and  he  replied  haughtily  that  he  should 
need  but  to  stamp  on  the  ground  and  soldiers 
would  spring  up.  Now  he  stamped,  and  stamped 
in  vain ;  no  volunteers  came  at  his  call.  The 
venerable  senators,  successors  of  those  who  had 
remained  in  their  seats  when  the  barbarians  were 
coming,  hastened  away  for  dear  life ;  they  did  not 
make  the  usual  sacrifices;  they  did  not  take  their 
goods  and  chattels;  they  even  forgot  the  public 
treasure,  which  would  have  been  of  the  utmost  use 
to  them  and  to  the  cause  of  Pompey. 


242   HOW  THE  TRIUMVIRS  CAME  TO  AN  END. 

Caesar's  army  supported  him  as  a  whole,  but  there 
was  one  self-important  man  among  the  leaders  of  it 
who  proved  an  exception.  Titus  Labienus,  who  had 
been  with  Caesar  in  Spain,  who  had  performed  some 
brilliant  feats  when  Vercingetorix  revolted,  and 
who  was  in  all  his  master's  confidence,  had  allowed 
his  little  mind  to  become  filled  with  pride  and  am- 
bition until  he  began  to  believe  that  he  was  at  the 
bottom  of  Caesar's  success,  and  probably  as  great  a 
general  as  he!  He  was  ready  to  allow  the  Pompei- 
ans  to  beguile  him  from  his  allegiance,  and  at  last 
went  over  to  them.  Caesar,  to  show  how  little  he 
cared  for  the  defection  of  Labienus,  hastened  to  send 
his  baggage  after  him ;  but  in  Rome  he  was  wel- 
comed with  acclamations.  Cicero,  the  trimmer, 
exclaimed :  "  Labienus  has  behaved  quite  like  a 
hero  !  "  and  believed  that  Caesar  had  received  a  tre- 
mendous blow  by  his  defection.  This  deserter's  act 
had,  however,  no  effect  whatever  on  the  progress  of 
Caesar,  who,  though  it  was  the  middle  of  winter, 
marched  onwards,  receiving  the  surrender  of  city 
after  city,  giving  to  all  the  conquered  citizens  the 
most  liberal  terms,  and  thus  binding  them  firmly  to 
his  cause.* 

Pompey  did  not  even  attempt  to  interrupt  the 
triumphant  career  of  his  enemy,  but  determined  to 
find  safety  out  of  Italy,  and  hastened  to  Brundusium 

*  As  Caesar  approached  Rome,  Cato  took  flight,  and,  determined  to 
mourn  until  death  the  unhappy  lot  of  his  country,  allowed  his  hair  to 
grow,  and  resigned  himself  to  unavailing  grief.  Too  weak  and  per- 
plexed to  stand  against  opposing  troubles,  he  fondly  thought  that 
resolutions  and  laws  and  a  temporizing  policy  might  avail  to  bring 
happiness  and  order  to  a  distraught  commonwealth, 


"STAND  ASIDE,    YOUNG  MAN!"  243 

as  fast  as  possible.  After  mastering  the  whole 
country,  Caesar  reached  the  same  port  before  Pompey 
was  able  to  get  away,  and  began  a  siege,  in  the 
progress  of  which  Pompey  escaped.  Caesar  was  not 
able  to  follow,  on  account  of  a  want  of  vessels.  He 
therefore  turned  back  to  Rome,  where  he  encountered 
no  opposition,  except  from  Metellus,  a  tribune  of 
the  people,  who  attempted  to  keep  him  from  taking 
possession  of  the  gold  in  the  temple  of  Saturn, 
traditionally  supposed  to  have  been  that  which 
Camillus  had  recovered  from  Brennus.  It  was  in- 
tended for  use  in  case  the  Gauls  should  make  another 
invasion,  but  Caesar  said  that  he  had  conquered  the 
Gauls,  and  they  need  be  feared  no  more.  "  Stand 
aside,  young  man  !  "  he  exclaimed  ;  "  it  is  easier  for 
me  to  do  than  to  say  ! "  Metellus  saw  that  it  was 
not  worth  while  to  discuss  the  question  with  such  a 
man,  and  prudently  stepped  aside. 

Caesar  did  not  remain  at  Rome  at  this  time,  but 
hastened  to  Spain,  where  partisans  of  Pompey  were 
in  arms,  leaving  Marc  Antony  in  charge  of  Italy  in 
general,  and  Marcus  Lepidus  responsible  for  order  in 
the  city.  Both  of  these  men  were  destined  to  be- 
come more  prominent  in  the  future.  At  the  same 
time,  legions  were  sent  to  Sicily  and  Sardinia,  and 
their  success,  which  was  easily  gained,  preserved  the 
city  from  a  scarcity  of  grain.  Caesar  himself  over- 
came the  Pompeians  in  Spain,  and,  in  accordance 
with  his  policy  in  Italy,  dismissed  them  unharmed. 
Most  of  their  soldiers  were  taken  into  his  own  army. 
He  then  felt  free  to  continue  his  movements  against 
Pompey  himself,  and  returned  to  the  capital. 


244  HOW  THE  TRIUMVIRS  CAME  TO  AN  END. 

For  eleven  days  Caesar  was  dictator  of  Rome, 
receiving  the  office  from  Lepidus,  who  had  been 
authorized  to  give  it  by  those  senators  who  had  not 
fled  with  Pompey.  In  that  short  period  he  passed 
laws  calling  home  the  exiles ;  giving  back  their  rights 
as  citizens  to  the  children  of  those  who  had  suffered 
in  the  Sullan  proscription ;  and  affording  relief  to 
debtors.  Then,  causing  the  senate  to  declare  him 
consul,  he  started  for  Brundusium  to  pursue  his 
rival.  It  was  the  fourth  of  January,  48,  when  he  sailed 
for  the  coast  of  Epirus,  and  the  following  day  he 
landed  on  the  soil  of  Greece.  He  met  Pompey  at 
Dyrrachium,  but  his  force  was  so  small  that  he  was 
defeated.  He  then  retreated  to  the  southeast,  and 
another  battle  was  fought  on  the  plain  of  Pharsalia, 
in  Thessaly,  June  6,  48.  The  forces  were  still  very 
unequal,  Pompey  having  more  than  two  soldiers  to 
one  of  Caesar's  ;  but  Caesar's  were  the  better  warriors, 
and  Pompey  was  totally  defeated.  Feeling  that 
every  thing  was  now  lost,  Pompey  sought  an  asylum 
in  Egypt  ;  and  there  he  was  assassinated  by  order  ot 
the  reigning  monarch,  who  hoped  to  win  the  favor 
of  Caesar  in  his  contest  with  his  sister,  Cleopatra, 
who  claimed  the  throne. 

Caesar  followed  his  adversary  with  his  usual 
promptness,  and  when  he  had  reached  Egypt  was 
shown  his  rival's  severed  head,  from  which  he  turned 
with  real  or  feigned  sadness  and  tears.  This  alarmed 
the  king  and  his  partisans,  and  they  still  further  lost 
heart  when  Cleopatra  won  Caesar  to  her  support  by 
the  charms  of  her  personal  beauty. 

After  a  brief  struggle  known  as  the  Alexandrine 


"VENT,    VIDI,    V1CI."  245 

War,  which  closed  in  March,  47,  Caesar  placed  the 
queen  and  her  brother  on  the  throne.  It  was  at  this 
time  that  the  great  Library  and  Museum  at  Alexan- 
dria were  destroyed  by  fire.  Four  hundred  thousand 
volumes  were  said  to  have  been  burned.  The  next 
month  Caesar  was  called  from  Egypt  to  Pontus, 
where  a  son  of  Mithridates  was  in  arms,  and,  after  a 
campaign  of  five  days,  he  gained  a  decisive  victory  at 
a  place  called  Zela,  boastfully  announcing  his  success 
to  the  senate  in  three  short  words:  "Vent,  vidi,  vici" 
(I  came,  I  saw,  I  overcame).  In  September,  Caesar 
was  again  in  Rome,  where  he  remained  only  three 
months,  arranging  affairs.  There  were  fears  lest  he 
should  make  a  proscription,  but  he  proceeded  to  no 
such  extremity,  exercising  his  characteristic  clemency 
towards  those  who  had  been  opposed  to  him.  A 
revolt  occurred  at  this  time  among  the  soldiers  at 
Capua,  and  they  marched  to  Rome,  but  Caesar 
cowed  them  by  a  display  of  haughty  coolness. 

The  remnant  of  the  adherents  of  Pompey  gathered 
together  and  went  to  Africa,  whither  Caesar  followed, 
and  after  a  short  campaign  defeated  them  on  the 
field  of  Thapsus,  April  6,  46.  They  were  command- 
ed by  Scipio,  father-in-law  of  Pompey,  and  by  Cato, 
who  had  accepted  the  position  after  it  had  been 
declined  by  Cicero,  his  superior  in  rank.  After  the 
defeat  of  Thapsus  Cato  retreated  to  Utica,  where  he 
deliberately  put  an  end  to  his  life  after  occupying 
several  hours  in  reading  Plato's  Phczdo,  a  dialogue 
on  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  From  the  place  of 
his  death  he  is  known  in  history  as  Cato  of  Utica. 

When  the  news  of  this  final  victory  reached  Rome 


246  HOW  THE  TRIUMVIRS  CAME  TO  AN  END. 

Caesar  was  appointed  dictator  for  ten  years,  and  a 
thanksgiving  lasting  forty  days  was  decreed.  He 
was  also  endowed  with  a  newly  created  office — that 
of  Overseer  of  Public  Morals  (Proefectus  Moruni). 
Temples  and  statues  were  dedicated  to  his  honor  ;  a 
golden  chair  was  assigned  for  his  use  when  he  sat  in 
the  senate ;  the  month  Quintilis  was  renamed  after 
him  Julius  (July);  and  other  unheard  of  honors  were 
thrust  upon  him  by  a  servile  senate.  He  was  also 
called  the  Father  of  his  Country  (a  title  that  had 
been  before  borne  by  Camillus  and  Cicero),  and  four 
triumphs  were  celebrated  for  him.  On  his  own  part, 
Caesar  feasted  the  people  at  twenty-two  thousand 
tables,  and  caused  combats  of  wild  animals  and  gladi- 
ators to  be  celebrated  in  the  arenas  beneath  awnings 
of  the  richest  silks. 

The  great  conqueror  now  prepared  to  carry  out 
schemes  of  a  beneficent  nature  which  would  have 
been  of  great  value  to  the  world  ;  but  their  achieve- 
ment was  interfered  with,  first  by  war  and  then  by 
his  own  death.  He  intended  to  unify  the  regions 
controlled  by  the  republic  by  abolishing  offensive 
political  distinctions,  and  to  develop  them  by  means 
of  a  geographical  survey  which  would  have  occupied 
years  to  complete  under  the  most  competent  man- 
agement ;  and  he  wished  to  codify  the  Roman  law, 
which  had  been  growing  up  into  a  universal  jurispru- 
dence, a  work  which  Cicero  looked  upon  as  a  hopeless 
though  brilliant  vision,  and  one  that  Justinian 
actually  accomplished,  though  not  until  six  hundred 
years  later.  He  contemplated  also  the  erection  of 
vast  public  works.  His  knowledge  of  astronomy 


THE  CALENDAR  REFORMED.  247 

led  him  to  accomplish  one  important  change,  for 
which  we  have  reason  to  remember  him  to-day. 
He  reformed  the  calendar,  substituting  the  one  used 
until  1582  (known  from  him  as  the  Julian  calendar) 
for  that  which  was  then  current.*  Three  hundred 
and  fifty-five  days  had  been  called  a  year  from  the 
time  of  Numa  Pompilius,  but  as  that  number 
did  not  correspond  with  the  actual  time  of  the 
revolution  of  the  earth  around  the  sun,  it  had  been 
customary  to  intercalate  a  month,  every  second  year, 
of  twenty-two  and  twenty-three  days  alternately, 
and  one  day  had  also  been  added  to  make  a  fortu- 
nate number.  This  made  the  adaptation  of  the 
nominal  year  to  the  actual  a  matter  of  great  intri- 
cacy, the  duty  being  intrusted  to  the  chief  pontiffs. 
These  officers  were  often  corrupted,  and  managed 
to  effect  political  ends  from  time  to  time  by  the 
addition  or  omission  of  the  intercalary  days  and 
months.  At  this  time  the  civil  calendar  was  some 
weeks  in  advance  of  the  actual  time,  so  that  the 
consuls,  for  example,  who  should  have  entered  office 
January  I,  46,  really  assumed  their  power  October 
13,  47.  The  Julian  calendar  made  the  year  to 
consist  of  365  days  and  six  hours,  which  was  correct 
within  a  few  minutes ;  but,  by  the  time  of  Pope 
Gregory  XIII.,  this  had  amounted  to  ten  days,  and  a 
new  reform  was  instituted.  Caesar  now  added  ninety 
days  to  the  year  in  order  to  make  the  year  45  begin 

*  The  Gregorian  calendar  was  introduced  in  the  Catholic  states  of 
Europe  in  1582,  but  owing  to  popular  prejudice  England  did  not  begin 
to  use  it  until  1752,  in  which  year  September  3d  became,  by  act  of 
Parliament,  September  I4th.  Usage  in  America  followed  that  of  the 
mother  country. 


248  HOW  THE  TRIUMVIRS  CAME  TO  AN  END. 

at  the  proper  time,  inserting  a  new  month  between 
the  236  and  24th  of  February,  and  adding  two  new 
months  after  the  end  r>f  November,  so  that  the  long 
year  thus  manufactured  (445  days)  was  very  justly 
called  the  "  year  of  confusion,  or  "  the  last  year  of 
confusion." 

Caesar  had  also  in  mind  plans  of  conquest.  He 
had  not  forgotten  that  the  Roman  arms  had  been 
unsuccessful  at  Carrhae,  and  he  wished  to  subdue  the 
Parthians,  but  the  ghost  of  Pompey  would  not  down. 
His  sons  raised  the  banner  of  revolt  in  Spain,  and 
the  officers  sent  against  them  did  not  succeed  in 
their  efforts  to  assert  the  supremacy  of  Rome.  It 
was  necessary  that  Caesar  himself  should  go  there, 
and  accordingly  he  set  out  in  September.  Twenty- 
seven  days  later  he  was  on  the  ground,  and  though 
he  found  himself  in  the  face  of  greater  difficulties 
than  he  had  anticipated,  a  few  months  sufficed  to 
completely  overthrow  the  enemy,  who  were  defeated 
finally  at  the  battle  of  Munda,  not  far  from  Gibraltar 
(March,  17,  45).  Thirty  thousand  of  them  perished. 
Caesar  did  not  return  to  Rome  until  September,  be- 
cause affairs  of  the  province  required  attention. 
Again  he  celebrated  a  triumph,  marked  by  games 
and  shows,  and  new  honors  from  the  senate. 

Caesar's  ambition  now  made  him  wish  to  continue 
the  supreme  power  in  his  family,  and  he  fixed  upon 
a  great-nephew  named  Octavius  as  his  successor.  In 
the  fifth  year  of  his  consulate  (B.C.  44),  on  the  feast 
of  Lupercalia  (Feb.  1 5th),  he  attempted  to  take  a  more 
important  step.  He  prevailed  upon  Marc  Antony 
to  make  him  an  offer  of  the  kingly  diadem,  but  as  he 


CAESAR  PUTS  BY  THE   CROWN.  249 

immediately  saw  that  it  was  not  pleasing  to  the 
people  that  he  should  accept  it,  he  pushed  the 
glittering  coronet  from  him,  amid  their  plaudits,  as 
though  he  would  not  think  of  assuming  any  sign  of 
authority  that  the  people  did  not  freely  offer  him 
themselves.*  Caesar  still  longed  for  the  name  of 
king,  however,  and  became  irritated  because  it  was 
not  given  him.  This  was  shown  in  his  intercourse 
with  the  nobles,  and  they  were  now  excited  against 
him  by  one  Caius  Cassius  Longinus  (commonly 
called  simply  Cassius),  who  had  wandered  and  fought 
with  Crassus  in  Parthia,  but  had  escaped  from  that 
disastrous  campaign.  He  had  been  a  follower  of 
Pompey,  and  had  fallen  into  Caesar's  hands  shortly 
after  the  battle  of  Pharsalia.  Though  he  owed  his 
life  to  Caesar,  he  was  personally  hostile  to  him,  and 
his  feelings  were  so  strong  that  he  formed  a  plot  for 
his  destruction,  in  which  sixty  or  eighty  persons  were 
involved.  Among  these  was  Marcus  Junius  Brutus, 
then  about  forty  years  of  age,  who  had  also  been 
with  Pompey  at  Pharsalia.  He  was  of  illustrious 
pedigree,  and  claimed  to  be  descended  from  the 
shadowy  hero  of  his  name,  who  is  said  to  have  pur- 

*  "  I  saw  Mark  Antony  offer  him  a  crown  ;  yet  '  t  was  not  a  crown 
neither,  't  was  one  of  these  coronets  ;  and,  as  I  told  you,  he  put  it  by 
once  ;  but  for  all  that,  to  my  thinking,  he  would  fain  have  had  it. 
Then  he  offered  it  to  him  again  ;  then  he  put  it  by  again  ;  but  to  my 
thinking,  he  was  very  loth  to  lay  his  fingers  off  it.  And  then  he  of- 
fered it  the  third  time  ;  he  put  it  the  third  time  by,  and  still  as  he  re- 
fused it,  the  rabblement  shouted  and  clapped  their  chapped  hands, 
and  threw  up  their  sweaty  night-caps,  and  uttered  such  a  deal  of  stink- 
ing breath  because  Csesar  refused  the  crown,  that  it  had  almost  choked 
Caesar  ;  for  he  swooned  and  fell  down  at  it."  Casca's  account,  iu 
Shakespeare's  Julius  Ctesar,  act  i.,  sc.  2. 


250  HOW  THE  TRIUMVIRS  CAME  TO  AN  END. 

sued  the  Tarquins  with  such  patriotic  zeal.  His  life 
also  had  been  spared  by  Caesar  at  Pharsalia,  and  he 
had  made  no  opposition  to  his  acts  as  dictator.  Cato 
was  his  political  model,  and  at  about  this  time,  he 
divorced  his  wife  to  marry  Portia,  Cato's  daughter. 
Cassius  had  married  Junia  Tertulla,  half-sister  of 
Brutus,  and  now  offered  him  the  place  of  chief 
adviser  of  the  conspirators,  who  determined  upon  a 
sudden  and  bold  effort  to  assassinate  the  dictator. 
They  intended  to  make  it  appear  that  patriotism 
gave  them  the  reason  for  their  act,  but  in  this  they 
failed. 

The  senate  was  to  convene  on  the  Ides  of  March, 
and  Caesar  was  warned  that  danger  awaited  him  ;  but 
he  was  not  to  be  deterred,  and  entered  the  chamber 
amid  the  applause  of  the  people.  The  conspirators 
crowded  about  him,  keeping  his  friends  at  a  distance, 
and  at  a  concerted  signal  he  was  grasped  by  the 
hands  and  embraced  by  some,  while  others  stabbed 
him  with  their  fatal  daggers.  He  fell  at  the  base  of 
the  statue  of  Pompey,  pierced  with  more  than  a 
score  of  wounds.  It  is  said  that  when  he  noticed 
Brutus  in  the  angry  crowd,  he  exclaimed  in  surprise 
and  sorrow  :  "  Et  tu  Brute  !  "  (  And  thou,  too, 
Brutus!). 

Brutus  had  prepared  a  speech  to  deliver  to  the 
senate,  but  when  he  looked  around,  he  found  that 
senators,  centurions,  lictors,  and  attendants,  all  had 
fled,  and  the  place  was  empty.  He  then  marched 
with  his  accomplices  to  the  forum.  It  was  crowded 
with  an  excited  multitude,  but  it  was  not  a  multi- 
tude of  friends.  The  assassins  saw  that  there  was 


ANTONYS  CREAT  ORATION.  2$I 

no  safety  for  them  in  the  city.  Lepidus  was  at  the 
gates  with  an  army,  and  Antony  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  the  papers  and  treasures  of  Caesar,  which 
gave  him  additional  power ;  but  all  parties  were  in 
doubt  as  to  the  next  steps,  and  a  reconciliation  was 
determined  upon  as  giving  time  for  reflection.  Cas- 
sius  went  to  sup  with  Antony,  and  Brutus  with 
Lepidus.  This  shows  plainly  that  the  good  of  the 
republic  was  not  the  cause  nearest  the  hearts  of  the 
principal  actors ;  but  that  each,  like  a  wary  player 
at  chess,  was  only  anxious  lest  some  adversary 
should  get  an  advantage  over  him. 

The  senate  was  immediately  convened,  and  under 
the  direction  of  Cicero,  who  became  its  temporary 
leader,  it  was  voted  that  the  acts  of  Caesar,  intended 
as  well  as  performed,  should  be  ratified,  and  that  the 
conspirators  should  be  pardoned,  and  assigned  to  the 
provinces  that  Caesar  had  designated  them  for. 

Antony  now  showed  himself  a  consummate  actor, 
and  a  master  of  the  art  of  moving  the  multitude. 
He  prepared  for  the  obsequies  of  the  dictator,  at 
which  he  was  to  deliver  the  oration,  and,  while 
pretending  to  endeavor  to  hold  back  the  people 
from  violence  against  the  murderers,  managed  to 
excite  them  to  such  an  extent  that  nothing  could 
restrain  them.  He  brought  the  body  into  the 
Campus  Martius  for  the  occasion,  and  there  in  its 
presence  displayed  the  bloody  garment  through 
which  the  daggers  of  the  conspirators  had  been 
thrust ;  identified  the  rents  made  by  the  leader, 
Cassius,  the  "envious  Casca,"  the  "well-beloved 
Brutus,"  and  the  others  ;  and  displayed  a  waxen 


252   HOW  THE   TRIUMVIRS  CAME   TO  AN  END. 

effigy  that  he  had  prepared  for  the  occasion,  bearing 
all  the  wounds.  He  called  upon  the  crowd  the 
while,  as  it  swayed  to  and  fro  in  its  threatening  vio- 
lence, to  listen  to  reason,  but  at  the  same  time  told 
them  that  if  he  possessed  the  eloquence  of  a  Brutus 
he  would  ruffle  up  their  spirits  and  put  a  tongue  in 
every  wound  of  Caesar  that  would  move  the  very 
stones  of  Rome  to  rise  in  mutiny.  He  said  that  if 
the  people  could  but  hear  the  last  will  of  the  dicta- 
tor, they  would  dip  their  kerchiefs  in  his  blood- 
yea,  beg  a  hair  of  him  for  memory,  and,  dying, 
mention  it  in  their  wills  as  a  rich  legacy  to  their 
children. 

The  oration  had  its  natural  effect.  The  people, 
stirred  from  one  degree  of  frenzy  to  another,  piled 
up  chairs,  benches,  tables,  brushwood,  even  orna- 
ments and  costly  garments  for  a  funeral  pile,  and 
burned  the  whole  in  the  forum.  Unable  to  restrain 
themselves,  they  rushed  with  brands  from  the  fire 
towards  the  homes  of  the  conspirators  to  wreak 
vengeance  upon  them.  Brutus  and  Cassius  had  fled 
from  the  city,  and  the  others  could  not  be  found,  so 
that  the  fury  of  their  hate  died  out  for  want  of  new 
fuel  upon  which  to  feed. 

Antony  was  now  the  chief  man  of  Rome,  and  it 
was  expected  that  he  would  demand  the  dictator- 
ship. To  the  astonishment  of  all,  he  proposed  that 
the  office  itself  should  be  forever  abolished,  thus 
keeping  up  his  pretence  of  moderation ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  asked  for  a  body-guard,  which  the 
senate  granted,  and  he  surrounded  himself  with  a 
force  of  six  thousand  men.  He  appointed  magis* 


254  HOW  THE  TRIUMVIRS  CAME  TO  AN  END. 

trates  as  he  wished,  recalled  exiles,  and  freed  any 
from  prison  whom  he  desired,  under  pretence  of 
following  the  will  of  Caesar. 

It  soon  became  apparent  that,  in  the  words  of 
Cicero  addressed  to  Cassius,  the  state  seemed  to 
have  been  "  emancipated  from  the  king,  but  not 
from  the  kingly  power,"  for  no  one  could  tell  where 
Antony  would  stop  his  pretence  of  carrying  out  the 
plans  of  Caesar.  The  republic  was  doubtless  soon  to 
end,  and  it  was  not  plain  what  new  misery  was  in  store 
for  the  distracted  people. 


XVII. 

HOW   THE   REPUBLIC   BECAME  AN   EMPIRE. 

WHEN  Caesar  had  planned  to  go  to  Parthia,  he 
sent  in  that  direction  some  of  his  legions,  which 
wintered  at  Apollonia,  just  over  the  Adriatic,  oppo- 
site Brundusium,  and  with  them  went  the  young  and 
sickly  nephew  whom  Caesar  had  mentioned  in  his 
will  as  his  heir.  While  the  young  man  was  engaged 
in  familiarizing  himself  with  the  soldiers  and  their 
life,  a  freedman  arrived  in  camp  to  announce  from 
his  mother  the  tragedy  of  the  Ides  of  March.  The 
soldiers  offered  to  go  with  him  to  avenge  his  uncle's 
death,  but  he  decided  to  set  out  at  once  and  alone 
for  the  capital.  At  Brundusium  he  was  received  by 
the  army  with  acclamations.  He  did  not  hesitate  to 
assume  the  name  Caesar,  and  to  claim  the  succession, 
though  he  thus  bound  himself  to  pay  the  legacies 
that  Caesar  had  made  to  the  people.  He  was  known 
as  Caius  Julius  Caesar  Octavianus,  or,  briefly,  as 
Octavius.*  Caesar  had  bequeathed  his  magnificent 

*  Octavius  was  son  of  Caius  Octavius  and  Alia,  daughter  of  Julia, 
sister  of  Julius  Caesar,  and  was  born  Sept.  23,  B.C.  63.  His  true  name 
was  the  same  as  that  of  his  father,  but  he  is  usually  mentioned  in  his- 
tory as  Augustus,  an  untranslatable  title  that  he  assumed  when  he  be- 
came emperor.  His  descent  was  traced  from  Atys,  son  of  Alba,  an 
old  Latin  hero. 


256  HOW  THE  REPUBLIC  BECAME  AN  EMPIRE. 

gardens  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Tiber  to  the 
public  as  a  park,  and  to  every  citizen  in  Rome  a  gift 
of  three  hundred  sesterces,  equal  to  ten  or  fifteen 
dollars.  These  provisions  could  not  easily  be  carried 
out  except  by  Antony,  who  had  taken  possession  of 
Caesar's  moneys,  and  who  was  at  the  moment  the 
most  powerful  man  in  the  republic.  Next  to  him 
stood  Lepidus,  who  was  in  command  of  the  army. 
These  two  seemed  to  stand  between  Octavius  and 
his  heritage. 

Octavius  understood  the  value  of  money,  and 
took  possession  of  the  public  funds  at  Brundusium, 
captured  such  remittances  from  the  provinces  as  he 
could  reach,  and  sent  off  to  Asia  to  see  how  much  he 
could  secure  of  the  amount  provided  for  the  Parthian 
expedition,  just  as  though  all  this  had  been  his  own 
personal  property. 

Thus  the  timid  but  ambitious  youth  began  to 
prepare  himself  for  supreme  authority.  When  he 
reached  Rome  his  mother  and  other  friends  warned 
him  of  the  risks  involved  in  his  course,  but  he  was 
resolute.  He  had  made  the  acquaintance  at  Apol- 
lonia  of  Marcus  Vipsanius  Agrippa,  then  twenty 
years  of  age,  who  afterwards  became  a  skilful  warrior 
and  always  was  a  valuable  adviser,  and  now  he 
determined  to  make  a  friend  of  Cicero.  This  re- 
markable orator  had  already  been  intimate  with  all 
the  prominent  men  of  his  day  ;  had  at  one  time  or 
another  flattered  or  cajoled  Curio,  Cassius,  Crassus, 
Pompey,  Antony,  and  Caesar,  and  now,  after  thor- 
roughly  canvassing  the  probabilities,  he  decided  to 
take  the  side  of  Octavius,  though  he  was  loth  to 


CICERO'S  PHILIPPICS. 

break  with  either  Brutus  or  Antony.  His  weakness 
is  plainly  and  painfully  presented  by  his  own  hand 
in  his  interesting  letters,  which  add  much  light  to  the 
story  of  this  period.  * 

Octavius  gathered  together  enough  money  to  pay 
the  legacies  of  Caesar  by  sales  of  property,  and  by 
loans,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Antony  refused  to 
give  up  any  that  he  had  taken.  He  artfully  won  the 
soldiers  and  the  people  by  his  liberality  (that  could 
not  fail  to  be  contrasted  with  the  grasping  action  of 
Antony),  and  by  the  shows  with  which  he  amused 
them.  Thus  with  it  all  he  managed  to  make  the 
world  believe  that  he  was  not  laying  plans  of  am- 
bition, but  simply  wished  to  protect  the  state 
from  the  selfish  designs  of  his  rival.  In  this  effort 
he  was  supported  by  the  oratory  of  Cicero,  who 
began  to  compose  and  deliver  or  publish  a  remarkable 
series  of  fourteen  speeches  known  as  Philippics,  from 
their  resemblance  to  the  four  acrimonious  invectives 
against  Philip  of  Macedon  which  the  great  Demos- 
thenes launched  at  Athens  during  the  eleven  years  in 
which  he  strove  to  arouse  the  weakened  Greeks 
from  inactivity  and  pusillanimity  (352-342  B.C.). 

*  James  Anthony  Froude  says  :  "  In  Cicero,  Nature  half-made  a  great 
man  and  left  him  uncompleted.  Our  characters  are  written  in  our  forms, 
and  the  bust  of  Cicero  is  the  key  to  his  history.  The  brow  is  broad 
and  strong,  the  nose  large,  the  lips  tightly  compressed,  the  features 
lean  and  keen  from  restless  intellectual  energy.  The  loose,  bending 
figure,  the  neck  too  weak  for  the  weight  of  the  head,  explain  the  in- 
firmity of  will,  the  passion,  the  cunning,  the  vanity,  the  absence  of 
manliness  and  veracity.  He  was  born  into  an  age  of  violence  with 
which  he  was  too  feeble  to  contend.  The  gratitude  of  mankind  for 
his  literary  excellence  will  forever  preserve  his  memory  fr°m  to°  harsh 
a.  judgment." — "  Cassar,  a  Sketch,"  chapter  xxvii. 


HOW  THE  REPUBLIC  BECAME  AN  EMPIRE. 

Cicero  entered  Rome  on  the  first  of  September, 
and  delivered  his  first  Philippic  the  next  day,  in  the 
same  Temple  of  Concord  in  which  he  had  denounced 
Catiline  twenty  years  before.  He  then  retired  from 
the  city,  and  did  not  hear  the  abusive  tirade  with 
which  Antony  attempted  to  blacken  his  reputation. 
In  October  he  prepared  a  second  speech,  which  was 
not  delivered,  but  was  given  to  the  public  in  Novem- 
ber. This  is  the  most  elaborate  and  the  best  of  the 
Philippics,  and  it  is  also  much  more  fierce  than  the 
former.  The  last  of  the  series  was  delivered  April 
22,  43.  Antony  was  soon  declared  a  public  enemy, 
and  Cicero  in  his  speeches  constantly  urged  a  vigor- 
ous prosecution  of  the  war  against  him. 

Octavius  gained  the  confidence  of  the  army,  and 
then  demanded  the  consulate  of  the  senate.  When 
that  powerful  office  had  been  obtained,  he  broke 
with  the  senate,  and  marched  to  the  northward, 
ostensibly  to  conquer  Antony  and  Lepidus,  who  were 
coming  down  with  another  great  army.  Instead  of 
precipitating  a  battle,  Lepidus  contrived  to  have  a 
meeting  on  a  small  island  in  a  tributary  of  the  Po, 
not  far  from  the  present  site  of  Bologna,  and  there, 
toward  the  end  of  October,  it  was  agreed  that  the 
government  of  the  Roman  world  should  be  peace- 
ably  divided  between  the  three  captains,  who  were 
to  be  called  Triumvirs  for  the  settlement  of  the 
affairs  of  the  republic.  They  were  to  retain  their 
offices  until  the  end  of  December,  38,  Lepidus  ruling 
Spain;  Octavius,  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Africa;  and 
Antony,  the  two  Gauls;  while  Italy  was  to  be  gov- 
erned by  the  three  in  common,  their  authority  being 


ANOTHER  PROSCRIPTION.  259 

paramount  to  senate,  consuls,  and  laws.  This  is 
known  as  the  Second  Triumvirate,  though  we  must 
remember  that  the  former  arrangement,  made  by 


MARCUS  TULLIUS  CICERO. 

Caesar,  Pompey,  and  Crassus,  was  simply  a  private 
league  without  formal  sanction  of  law.     The  second 
triumvirate  was  proclaimed  November,  27,  43  B.C. 
The  first  work  of  the  three  rulers  was  to  rid  them- 


260   HOW  THE  REPUBLIC  BECAME  AN'  EMPIRE. 

selves  of  all  whom  they  feared  as  enemies,  and  we 
have  to  imagine  them  sitting  down  to  make  out  a 
list  of  those  who,  like  the  sufferers  at  the  dreadful 
time  of  Marius  and  Sulla,  were  proscribed.  Among 
the  prominent  men  seventeen  were  first  chosen  to 
be  butchered,  and  on  the  horrid  list  are  found  the 
names  of  a  cousin  of  Octavius,  a  brother  of  Lepidus, 
and  an  uncle  of  Antony.  To  the  lasting  execration 
of  Octavius,  he  consented  that  Cicero,  who  had  so 
valiantly  fought  for  him,  should  be  sacrificed  to  the 
vengeance  of  Antony,  whom  the  orator  had  scarified 
with  his  burning  words. 

This  was  but  the  beginning  of  blood-shedding,  for 
when  the  triumvirs  reached  Rome  they  issued  list 
after  list  of  the  doomed,  some  names  being  appar- 
ently included  at  the  request  of  daughters,  wives, 
and  friends  to  gratify  private  malice.  The  head  and 
hands  of  Cicero  were  cut  off  and  sent  to  be  affixed 
to  the  rostra,  where  they  had  so  often  been  seen 
during  his  life.  It  is  said  that  on  one  occasion 
a  head  was  presented  to  Antony,  and  he  exclaimed  : 
"  I  do  not  recognize  it,  show  it  to  my  wife  " ;  and 
that  on  another,  when  a  man  begged  a  few  moments 
of  respite  that  he  might  send  his  son  to  intercede 
with  Antony,  he  was  told  that  it  was  that  son  who 
had  demanded  his  death.  The  details  are  too  hor. 
rible  for  record,  and  yet  it  is  said  that  the  massacre 
was  not  so  general  as  in  the  former  instance.  In 
this  reign  of  terror,  three  hundred  senators  died,  and 
two  thousand  knights. 

While  these  events  had  occurred  in  Rome,  Brutus 
and  Cassius  had  been  successfully  pursuing  their 


THE  FIELD  OF  PHILIP  PL  26 1 

conquests  in  Syria  and  Greece,  and  were  now  masters 
of  the  eastern  portion  of  the  Roman  world.  When 
they  heard  of  the  triumvirate  and  the  proscription, 
they  determined  to  march  into  Europe  ;  but  Antony 
and  Octavius  were  before  them,  and  the  opposed 
forces  met  on  the  field  of  Philippi,  which  lies  nine 
miles  from  the  yEgean  Sea,  on  the  road  between 
Europe  and  Asia,  the  Via  Egnatia,  which  ran  then 
as  now  from  Dyrrachium  and  Apollonia  in  Illyricum, 
by  way  of  Thessalonica  to  Constantinople,  or  By- 
zantium, as  it  was  then  called.  Brutus  engaged  the 
forces  of  Octavius,  and  Cassius  those  of  Antony. 
Antony  made  head  against  his  opponent ;  but  Octa- 
vius, who  was  less  of  a  commander,  and  fell  into  a 
fit  of  illness  on  the  beginning  of  the  battle,  gave 
way  before  Brutus,  though  in  consequence  of  misin- 
formation of  the  progress  of  the  struggle,  Cassius 
killed  himself  just  before  a  messenger  arrived  to  tell 
him  of  his  associate's  success.  Twenty  days  after- 
wards the  struggle  was  renewed  on  the  same  ground, 
and  Brutus  was  defeated,  upon  which  he  likewise  put 
an  end  to  his  own  life.  If  the  murderers  of  Caesar 
had  fought  for  the  republic,  there  was  no  hope  for 
that  cause  now.  The  three  rulers  were  reduced  to 
two,  for  Lepidus  was  ignored  after  the  victory  of  his 
associates,  and  it  only  remained  to  eliminate  the 
second  member  of  the  triumvirate  to  establish  the 
monarchy.  For  the  present,  Octavius  and  Antony 
divided  the  government  between  them,  Antony 
taking  the  luxurious  East,  and  leaving  to  Octavius 
the  invidious  task  of  governing  Italy  and  allotting 
lands  to  the  veterans. 


262   HOW  THE  REPUBLIC  BECAME  AN  EMPIRE. 

Thousands  of  the  inhabitants  of  Cisalpine  Gaul 
were  expelled  from  their  homes  to  supply  the  sol- 
diers with  farms,  but  still  they  remained  unsatisfied, 
and  Italy  was  filled  with  complaints  which  Octavius 
was  unable  to  allay.  Antony,  on  the  other  hand, 
gave  himself  up  to  the  grossest  dissipation,  careless 
of  consequences.  At  Tarsus,  he  had  an  interview 
with  Cleopatra,  then  twenty-eight  years  of  age; 
whom  he  had  seen  years  before  when  he  had  accom- 
panied Gabinius  to  Alexandria,  and  later,  when  she 
had  lived  at  Rome  the  favorite  of  C?esar.  Hence- 
forth he  was  her  willing  slave.  She  sailed  up  the 
river  Cydnus  in  a  vessel  propelled  by  silver  oars  that 
moved  in  unison  with  luxurious  music,  and  filled  the 
air  with  fragrance  as  she  went,  while  beautiful  slaves 
held  the  rudder  and  the  ropes.  The  careless  and 
pleasure-loving  warrior  forgot  every  thing  in  his  wild 
passion  for  the  Egyptian  queen.  He  forgot  his  wife, 
Fulvia,  but  she  was  angry  with  Octavius  because  he 
had  renounced  his  wife  Claudia,  her  daughter,  and 
stirred  up  a  threatening  revolt  against  him,  which  she 
fondly  hoped  might  also  serve  to  recall  Antony  from 
th'e  fascinations  of  Cleopatra.  With  her  supporters 
she  raised  a  considerable  army,  by  taking  the  part  of 
the  Italians  who  had  been  dispossessed  to  give  farms 
to  the  veterans,  and  by  pretending  also  to  favor  the 
soldiers,  to  whom  rich  spoils  from  Asia  were  promised. 
They  were,  however,  pushed  from  place  to  place  until 
they  found  themselves  shut  up  in  the  town  of  Perusia, 
in  Etruria,  where  they  were  besieged  and  forced  to 
surrender,  by  the  military  skill  of  Agrippa,  afterwards 
known  as  one  of  the  ablest  generals  of  antiquity. 


ANTONY'S  FAILING  FORTUNES. 


263 


Meantime,  Antony's  fortunes  in  the  East  were 
failing,  and  he  determined  upon  a  brave  effort  to 
overthrow  Octavius.  He  sailed  for  Brundusium,  and 
laid  siege  to  it ;  but  the  soldiers  on  both  sides  longed 
for  peace.  Fulvia  had  died,  and  mutual  friends  pre- 
vailed upon  Octavius  and  Antony  to  make  peace 
and  portion  out  the  world  anew.  Again  the  East 
fell  to  Antony  and  the  West  to  his  colleague. 


CLEOPATRA'S  SHOW-SHIP. 

Antony  married  Octavia,  sister  of  Octavius,  and  both 
repaired  to  the  capital,  where  they  celebrated  games 
and  festivities  in  honor  of  the  marriage  and  the 
reconciliation.  This  was  at  the  end  of  the  year 
40  B.C. 

The  next  year  peace  was  effected  with  Sextus,  a 
son  of  the  great  Pompey,  who  had  been  proscribed 
as  one  of  the  murderers  of  Caesar,  though  he  had 
really  had  no  share  in  that  deed.  He  had  been  en- 


264  HOW  THE  REPUBLIC  BECAME  AN  EMPIRE. 

gaged  in  marauding  expeditions  having  for  their 
purpose  the  injury  of  the  triumvirs,  and  at  this  time 
had  been  able  to  cut  off  a  considerable  share  of  the 
supply  of  grain  from  Sicily  and  Africa.  He  was  in- 
demnified for  the  loss  of  his  private  property  and 
was  given  an  important  command  for  five  years. 
This  agreement  was  never  consummated,  for  Antony 
had  not  been  consulted  and  refused  to  carry  out  a 
portion  of  it  that  depended  upon  him.  Again  Pom- 
pey  entered  upon  his  marauding  expeditions,  and  the 
price  of  grain  rose  rapidly  at  Rome.  Two  years  were 
occupied  in  preparing  a  fleet,  which  was  placed  under 
command  of  Agrippa,  who  defeated  Pompey  off  Naulo- 
chus,  on  the  northwestern  coast  of  Sicily  (Sept.  3,  36.) 
In  the  midst  of  the  preparations  for  the  war  with 
Pompey,  (B.C.  37)  discord  had  arisen  between  Antony 
and  Octavius,  and  the  commander  of  the  Eastern 
army  set  out  for  Italy  with  a  fleet  of  three  hundred 
sail.  Octavius  forbade  his  landing,  and  he  kept  on 
his  course  to  Tarentum,  where  a  conference  was  held. 
There  were  present  on  this  memorable  occasion, 
besides  the  two  triumvirs,  Agrippa,  the  great  gen- 
eral ;  Octavia,  sister  of  one  triumvir  and  wife  of  the 
other,  one  of  the  noblest  women  of  antiquity ;  and 
Caius  Cilnius  Maecenas,  a  wealthy  patron  of  letters, 
who  had  also  been  present  when  the  negotiations 
were  made  previous  to  the  peace  of  Brundusium,  three 
years  before.  Probably  the  satiric  poet  Horace  was 
also  one  of  the  group,  for  he  gives,  in  one  of  his 
satires,  an  account  of  a  journey  from  Rome  to  Brun- 
dusium, which  he  is  supposed  to  have  made  at  the 
time  that  Maecenas  was  hurrying  to  the  conference. 


HORACE  AND   VIRGIL   ON  A    JOURNEY.       26$ 

Horace  says  that  he  set  out  from  Rome  accompa- 
nied by  Heliodorus,  a  rhetorician  whom  he  calls  by 
far  the  most  learned  of  the  Greeks,  and  that  they 
found  a  middling  inn  at  Aricia,  the  first  stopping- 
place,  on  the  Appian  Way,  sixteen  miles  out,  at  the 
foot  of  the  Alban  mount. 

Next  they  rested,  or  rather  tried  to  rest,  at  Appii 
Forum,  a  place  stuffed  with  sailors,  and  then  took  a 
boat  on  the  canal  for  Tarracina.  He  gives  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  confusion  of  such  a  place,  where  the 
V^-watermen  and  the  slaves  of  the  travellers  were 
J*  mutually  liberal  in  their  abuse  of  each  other,  and  the 
/  gnats  and  frogs  drove  off  sleep.  Drunken  passen- 
gers, also,  added  to  the  din  by  the  songs  that  their 
potations  incited  them  to.  At  Feronia  the  passen- 
gers left  the  boat,  washed  their  faces  and  hands,  and 
crawled  onward  three  miles  up  to  the  heights  of 
Anxur,  where  Maecenas  and  others  joined  the  party. 
Slowly  they  made  their  way  past  Fundi,  and 
Formiae,  where  they  seem  to  have  been  well  enter- 
tained. The  next  day  they  were  rejoiced  by  the 
addition  of  the  poet  Virgil  and  several  more  friends 
to  the  party,  and  pleasantly  they  jogged  onwards 
until  their  mules  deposited  their  pack-saddles  at 
Capua,  where  Maecenas  was  soon  engaged  in  a  game 
of  tennis,  while  Horace  and  Virgil  sought  repose. 
The  next  stop  was  not  far  from  the  celebrated 
Caudine  Forks,  at  a  friend's  villa,  where  they  were 
very  hospitably  entertained,  and  supplied  with  a 
bountiful  supper,  at  which  buffoons  performed  some 
droll  raillery.  Thence  they  went  directly  to  Benc- 
ventum,  where  the  bustling  landlord  almost  burned 


V 


266  HOW  TJTE  REPUBLIC  BECAME  AN  EMPIRE. 

himself  and  those  he  entertained  in  cooking  their 
dainty  dinner,  the  kitchen  fire  falling  through  the 
floor  and  spreading  the  flames  towards  the  highest 
part  of  the  roof.  It  was  a  ludicrous  moment,  for 
the  hungry  guests  and  frightened  slaves  hardly  knew 
whether  to  snatch  their  supper  from  the  flames  or  to 
try  to  extinguish  the  fire. 

From  Beneventum  the  travellers  rode  on  in  sight 
of  the  Apuleian  mountains  to  the  village  of  Trivicum, 
where  the  poet  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  the  customs  of 
the  times  when  he  tells  us  that  tears  were  brought 
to  their  eyes  by  the  green  boughs  with  the  leaves 
upon  them  with  which  a  fire  was  made  on  the  hearth. 
Hence  for  twenty-four  miles  the  party  was  bowled 
away  in  chaises  to  a  little  town  that  the  poet  does 
not  name,  where  water  was  sold,  the  worst  in  the 
world,  he  thought  it,  but  where  the  bread  was  very 
fine.  Through  Canusium  they  went  to  Rubi,  reach- 
ing that  place  fatigued  because  they  had  made  a 
long  journey  and  had  been  troubled  by  rains.  Two 
days  more  took  them  through  Barium  and  Egnatia 
to  Brundusium,  where  the  journey  ended. 
\  /  At  this  conference  it  was  agreed  that  the  triumvi- 
rate should  continue  five  years  longer,  Antony  agree- 
ing to  assist  Octavius  with  120  ships  against  Pompey, 
and  Octavius  contributing  a  large  land  force  to  help 
Antony  against  the  Parthians.  After  Pompey  had 
been  overcome,  Lepidus  claimed  Sicily,  but  Octavius 
seduced  his  soldiers  from  him,  and  obliged  him  to 
throw  himself  upon  his  rival's  mercy.  He  was  per- 
mitted to  retire  into  private  life,  but  was  allowed  to 
enjoy  his  property  and  dignities,  He  Jived  in 


ANTONY'S  MAD  DESPERATION.  267 

ease  that  he  loved  until  13  B.C.,  first  at  Circeii,  not 
far  from  Tarracina,  and  afterwards  at  Rome,  where 
he  was  deprived  of  honors  and  rank.  Lepidus  had 
not  been  a  strong  member  of  the  triumvirate  for  a 
long  time,  but  after  this  he  was  not  allowed  to  inter- 
fere even  nominally  in  affairs  of  government.  An- 
tony and  Octavius  were  now  to  wrestle  for  the 
supremacy,  and  the  victor  was  to  be  autocrat. 

For  three  years  after  his  marriage  with  Octavia, 
Antony  seems  to  have  been  able  to  conquer  the 
fascinations  of  the  Egyptian  queen,  but  then,  when 
he  was  preparing  to  advance  into  Parthia,  he  allowed 
himself  to  fall  again  into  her  power,  and  the  chances 
that  he  could  hold  his  own  against  Octavius  were 
lessened  (B.  c.  37).  He  advanced  into  Syria,  but 
called  Cleopatra  to  him  there,  and  delayed  his  march 
to  remain  with  her,  overwhelming  her  with  honors. 
When  at  last  he  did  open  the  campaign,  he  encoun- 
tered disaster,  and,  hardly  escaping  the  fate  of 
Crassus,  retreated  to  Alexandria,  where  he  gave 
himself  up  entirely  to  his  enchantress.  He  laid 
aside  the  dress  and  manners  of  a  Roman,  and  ap- 
peared as  an  Eastern  monarch,  vainly  promising 
Cleopatra  that  he  would  conquer  Octavius  and  make 
Alexandria  the  capital  of  the  world.  The  rumors 
of  the  mad  acts  of  Antony  were  carried  to  Rome, 
where  Octavius  was  growing  in  popularity,  and  it 
was  inevitable  that  a  contrast  should  be  made  be- 
tween the  two  men.  Octavius  easily  made  the  people 
believe  that  they  had  every  thing  to  fear  from  An- 
tony. The  nobles  who  sided  with  Antony  urged 
him  to  dismiss  Cleopatra,  and  enter  upon  a  contest 


268   HO  W  THE  REPUBLIC  BECAME  AN  EMPIRE. 

with  his  rival  untrammelled  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  in 
his  infatuation  he  divorced  Octavia. 

War  was  declared  against  Cleopatra,  for  Antony 
was  ignored,  and  Octavius  as  consul  was  directed  to 
push  it.  Maecenas  was  placed  in  command  at  Rome, 
Agrippa  took  the  fleet,  and  the  consul  himself  the 
land  forces.  The  decisive  struggle  took  place  off 
the  west  coast  of  Greece,  north  of  the  islands  of 
Samos  and  Leucas,  near  the  promontory  of  Actium, 
which  gained  its  celebrity  from  this  battle  (Septem- 
ber 2,  B.C.  31).  The  ships  of  Agrippa  were  small, 
and  those  of  Antony  large,  but  difficult  of  manage- 
ment, and  Cleopatra  soon  became  alarmed  for  her 
safety.  She  attempted  to  flee,  and  Antony  sailed 
after  her,  leaving  those  who  were  fighting  for  them. 
Agrippa  obtained  a  decisive  victory,  and  Octavius 
likewise  overcame  the  forces  on  land. 

Agrippa  was  sent  back  to  Rome,  and  for  a  year 
Octavius  busied  himself  in  Greece  and  Asia  Minor, 
adding  to  his  popularity  by  his  mildness  in  the  treat- 
ment of  the  conquered.  He  had  intended  to  pass 
the  winter  at  Samos,  but  troubles  among  the  veter- 
ans called  him  to  Italy,  where  he  calmed  the  rising 
storm,  and  returned  again  to  his  contest,  after  an 
absence  of  only  twenty-seven  days. 

Both  Cleopatra  and  Antony  sent  messengers  to 
solicit  the  favor  of  Octavius,  but  he  was  cold  and 
did  not  satisfy  them,  and  calmly  pushed  his  plans. 
An  effort  was  made  by  Cleopatra  to  flee  to  some 
distant  Arabian  resort,  but  it  failed :  Antony  made 
a  show  of  resistance,  but  found  that  his  forces  were 
not  to  be  trusted,  and  both  then  put  an  end  to  their 


• 

ANCIENT   STATUE  OF   AUGUSTUS.      (THE   RIGHT  ARM   IS  A   RESTORATION.) 


270  HOW  THE  REPUBLIC  BECAME  AN  EMPIRE. 

lives,  leaving  Octavius  master  of  Egypt,  as  he  was  of 
the  rest  of  the  world.  He  did  not  hasten  back  to 
Rome,  where  he  knew  that  Maecenas  and  Agrippa 
were  faithfully  attending  to  his  interests,  but  occu> 
pied  himself  another  year  away  from  the  capital  in 
regulating  the  affairs  of  his  new  province. 

In  the  summer  of  the  year  29,  however,  Octavius 
left  Samos,  where  he  had  spent  the  winter  in  rest, 
and  entered  Rome  amid  the  acclamations  of  the 
populace,  celebrating  triumphs  for  the  conquest  of 
Dalmatia,  of  Actium,  and  of  Egypt,  and  distributing 
the  gold  he  had  won  with  such  prodigality  that 
interest  on  loans  was  reduced  two  thirds  and  the 
price  of  lands  doubled.  Each  soldier  received  a 
thousand  sesterces  (about  $40),  each  citizen  four 
hundred,  and  a  certain  sum  was  given  to  the  children, 
the  whole  amounting  to  some  forty  million  dollars. 

Octavius  marked  the  end  of  the  old  era  by  him- 
self closing  the  gates  of  the  temple  of  Janus  for  the 
third  time  in  the  history  of  Rome,  and  by  declaring 
that  he  had  burned  all  the  papers  of  Antony.  Sev- 
eral months  later,  by  suppressing  all  the  laws  of  the 
triumvirate  he  emphasized  still  more  the  fact  which 
he  wished  the  people  to  understand,  that  he  had 
broken  with  the  past. 

The  Roman  Republic  was  ended.  The  Empire 
was  not  established  in  name,  but  the  government 
was  in  reality  absolute.  The  chief  ruler  united  in 
himself  all  the  great  offices  of  the  state,  but  concealed 
his  strength  and  power,  professing  himself  the  minis- 
ter of  the  senate,  to  which,  however,  he  dictated  the 
decrees  that  he  ostentatiously  obeyed. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

SOME     MANNERS 


WE  have  now  traced  the  career  of  the  people  of 
Rome  from  the  time  when  they  were  the  plain  and 
rustic  subjects  of  a  king,  through  their  long  history 
as  a  conquering  republic,  down  to  the  period  when 
they  lost  the  control  of  government  and  fell  into  the 
hands  of  a  ruler  more  autocratic  than  their  earlier 
tyrants.  The  heroic  age  of  the  republic  had  now 
long  since  passed  away,  and  with  it  had  gone  even 
the  admiration  of  those  personal  qualities  which  had 
lain  at  the  foundation  of  the  national  greatness. 

History  at  its  best  is  to  such  an  extent  made  up 
of  stories  of  the  doings  of  rulers  and  fighting-men, 
who  happen  by  their  mere  strength  and  physical 
force  to  have  made  themselves  prominent,  that  it  is 
often  read  without  conveying  any  actual  familiarity 
with  the  people  it  is  ostensibly  engaged  with.  The 
soldiers  and  magistrates  of  whom  we  have  ourselves 
been  reading  were  but  few,  and  we  may  well  ask 
what  the  millions  of  other  citizens  were  doing  all 
these  ages.  How  did  they  live  ?  What  were  their 
joys  and  griefs  ?  We  have,  it  is  true,  not  failed  to 
get  an  occasional  glimpse  of  the  intimate  life  of  the 


272  MANNERS  ANP   CUSTOMS. 

people  who  were  governed,  as  we  have  seen  a  Vir- 
ginia passing  through  the  forum  to  her  school,  and  a 
Lucretia  spinning  among  her  maidens,  and  we  have 
learned  that  in  the  earliest  times  the  workers  were 
honored  so  much  that  they  were  formed  into  guilds, 
and  had  a  very  high  position  among  the  centuries 
(see  pages  31  and  50),  but  these  were  only  sugges- 
tions that  make  us  all  the  more  desirous  to  know 
particulars. 

Rome  had  not  become  a  really  magnificent  city, 
even  after  seven  hundred  years  of  existence.  We 
know  that  it  was  a  mere  collection  of  huts  in  the 
time  of  Romulus,  and  that  after  the  burning  of  the 
principal  edifices  by  the  Gauls,  it  was  rebuilt  in  a 
hurried  and  careless  manner,  the  houses  being  low 
and  mean,  the  streets  narrow  and  crooked,  so  that 
when  the  population  had  increased  to  hundreds  of 
thousands  the  crowds  found  it  difficult  to  make  their 
way  along  the  thoroughfares,  and  vehicles  with 
wheels  were  not  able  to  get  about  at  all,  except  in 
two  of  the  streets.  The  streets  were  paved,  it  is 
true,  and  there  were  roads  and  aqueducts  so  well 
built  and  firm  that  they  claim  our  admiration  even 
in  their  ruins. 

The  Roman  house  at  first  was  extremely  simple, 
being  of  but  one  room  called  the  atrium,  or  darkened 
chamber,  because  its  walls  were  stained  by  the  smoke 
that  rose  from  the  fire  upon  the  hearth  and  with 
difficulty  found  its  way  through  a  hole  in  the  roof. 
The  aperture  also  admitted  light  and  rain,  the  water 
that  dripped  from  the  roof  being  caught  in  a  cistern  •#>> 
that  was  formed  in  the  middle  of  the  room.  TheL 


274  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

atrium  was  entered  by  way  of  a  vestibule  open  to 
the  sky,  in  which  the  gentleman  of  the  house  put  on 
his  toga  as  he  went  out.*  Double  doors  admitted 
the  visitor  to  the  entrance-hall  or  ostium.  There 
was  a  threshold,  upon  which  it  was  unlucky  to  place 
the  left  foot ;  a  knocker  afforded  means  of  announ- 
cing one's  approach,  and  a  porter,  who  had  a  small 
room  at  the  side,  opened  the  door,  showing  the  callei 
the  words  Cave  cancm  (beware  of  the  dog),  or  Salve 
(welcome),  or  perchance  the  dog  himself  reached  out 
toward  the  visitor  as  far  as  his  chain  would  allow. 
Sometimes,  too,  there  would  be  noticed  in  the  mosaic 
of  the  pavement  the  representation  of  the  faithful 
domestic  animal  which  has  so  long  been  the'com- 
panion  as  well  as  the  protector  of  his  human  friend. 
Perhaps  myrtle  or  laurel  might  be  seen  on  a  door, 
indicating  that  a  marriage  was  in  process  of  celebra- 
tion, or  a  chaplet  announcing  the  happy  birth  of  an 
heir.  Cypress,  probably  set  in  pots  in  the  vestibule, 
indicated  a  death,  as  a  crape  festoon  does  upon  our 
own  door-handles,  while  torches,  lamps,  wreaths, 
garlands,  branches  of  trees,  showed  that  there  was 
joy  from  some  cause  in  the  house. 

In  the  "black  room"  the  bed  stood;  there  the 
meals  were  cooked  and  eaten,  there  the  goodman 
received  his  friends,  and  there  the  goodwife  sat  in 
the  midst  of  her  maidens  spinning.  The  original 
house  grew  larger  in  the  course  of  time  :  wings  were 
built  on  the  sides, — and  the  Romans  called  them 
wings  as  well  as  we  (ala,  a  wing).  Beyond  the 

*  When  Cincinnatus  went  out  to  work  in  the  field,  he  left  his  toga 
at  home,  wearing  his  tunic  only,  and  was  "  naked"  (nudus),  as  the 
Romans  said.  The  custom  illustrates  MATT,  xxiv.,  18.  (See  p.  &6.) 


2/6  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

black  room  a  recess  was  built  in  which  the  family 
records  and  archives  were  preserved,  but  with  it  for 
a  long  period  the  Roman  house  stopped  its  growth. 

Before  the  empire  came,  however,  there  had  been 
great  progress  in  making  the  dwelling  convenient  as 
well  as  luxurious.  Another  hall  had  been  bu.Mt  out 
from  the  room  of  archives,  leading  to  an  open  court, 
surrounded  by  columns,  known  as  the  peristylum  {peri 
about,  stulos,  a  pillar),  which  was  sometimes  of  great 
magnificence.  Bedchambers  were  made  separate 
from  the  atrium,  but  they  were  small,  and  would 
not  seem  very  convenient  to  modern  eyes. 

The  dining-room,  called  the  tricliniuM  (Greek, 
kline,  a  bed)  from  its  three  couches,  was  a  very  im- 
portant apartment.  In  it  were  three  lounges  sur- 
rounding a  table,  on  each  of  which  three  guests 
might  be  accommodated.  The  couches  were  ele- 
vated above  the  table,  and  each  man  lay  almost 
flat  on  his  breast,  resting  on  his  left  elbow,  and 
having  his  right  hand  free  to  use,  thus  putting  the 
head  of  one  near  the  breast  of  the  man  behind  him, 
and  making  natural  the  expression  that  he  lay  in  the 
bosom  of  the  other.*  As  the  guests  were  thus 
arranged  by  threes,  it  was  natural  that  the  rule 
should  have  been  made  that  a  party  at  dinner 
should  not  be  less  in  number  than  the  Graces  nor 
more  than  the  Muses,  though  it  has  remained  a  use- 
ful one  ever  since. 

Spacious  saloons  or  parlors  were  added  to  the 
houses,  some  of  which  were  surrounded  with  gal- 

*  In  the  earliest  times  the  Romans  sat  at  table  on  benches.  The 
habit  of  reclining  was  introduced  from  Greece,  but  Roman  women 
sat  at  table  long  after  the  men  had  fallen  into  the  new  way. 


LIBRARIES  AND  BA  TH-ROOMS.  2JJ 

leries  and  highly  adorned.  In  these  the  dining, 
tables  were  spread  on  occasions  of  more  ceremony 
than  usual.  After  the  capture  of  Syracuse,  and  the 
increase  of  familiarity  with  foreign  art,  picture-rooms 
were  built  in  private  dwellings;  and  after  the  second 
Punic  war,  book-rooms  became  in  some  sort  a  neces- 
sity. Before  the  republic  came  to  an  end,  it  was  so  fash- 
ionable to  have  a  book-room  that  ignorant  persons 
who  might  not  be  able  to  read  even  the  titles  of  their 
own  books  endeavored  to  give  themselves  the  appear- 
ance of  erudition  by  building  book-rooms  in  their 
houses  and  furnishing  them  with  elegance.  The  books 
were  in  cases  arranged  around  the  walls  in  convenient 
manner,  and  busts  and  statues  of  the  Muses,  of 
Minerva,  and  of  men  of  note  were  used  then  as  they 
are  now  for  ornaments.*  House-philosophers  were 
often  employed  to  open  to  the  uninstructed  the 
stores  of  wisdom  contained  in  the  libraries. 

As  wealth  and  luxury  increased,  the  Romans 
added  the  bath-room  to  their  other  apartments. 
In  the  early  ages  they  had  bathed  for  comfort  and 
cleanliness  once  a  week,  but  the  warm  bath  was  ap- 
parently unknown  to  them.  In  time  this  became 
very  common,  and  in  the  days  of  Cicero  there  were 
hot  and  cold  baths,  both  public  and  private,  which 
were  well  patronized.  Some  were  heated  by  fires  in 
flues,  directly  under  the  floors,  which  produced  a 
vapor  bath.  The  bath  was,  however,  considered  a 

*  The  books  were  rolls  of  the  rind  (liber)  of  the  Egyptian  papyrus, 
which  early  became  an  article  of  commerce,  or  of  parchment,  written 
on  but  one  side  and  stained  of  a  saffron  color  on  the  other.  Slaves 
were  employed  to  make  copies  of  books  that  were  much  in  demand, 
and  booksellers  bought  and  sold  them. 


278  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

luxury,  and  at  a  later  date  it  was  held  a  capital 
offence  to  indulge  in  one  on  a  religious  holiday,  and 
the  public  baths  were  closed  when  any  misfortune 
happened  to  the  republic. 

Comfort  and  convenience  united  to  take  the  cook- 
ing out  of  the  atrium  (which  then  became  a  recep- 
tion-room) into  a  separate  apartment  known  as  the 
culina,  or  kitchen,  in  which  was  a  raised  platform  on 
which  coals  might  be  burned  and  the  processes  of 
broiling,  boiling,  and  roasting  might  be  carried  on 
in  a  primitive  manner,  much  like  the  arrangement 
still  to  be  seen  at  Rome.  On  the  tops  of  the  houses, 
after  a  while,  terraces  were  planned  for  the  purpose 
of  basking  in  the  sun,  and  sometimes  they  were 
furnished  with  shrubs,  fruit-trees,  and  even  fish- 
ponds. Often  there  were  upwards  of  fifty  rooms  in 
a  house  on  a  single  floor  ;  but  in  the  course  of  time 
land  became  so  valuable  that  other  stories  were 
added,  and  many  lived  in  flats.  A  flat  was  some- 
times called  an  insula,  which  meant,  properly,  a 
house  not  joined  to  another,  and  afterwards  was 
applied  to  hired  lodgings.  Domus,  a  house,  meant 
a  dwelling  occupied  by  one  family,  whether  it  were 
an  insula  or  not. 

The  floors  of  these  rooms  were  sometimes,  but  not 
often,  laid  with  boards,  and  generally  were  formed 
of  stone,  tiles,  bricks,  or  some  sort  of  cement.  In 
the  richer  dwellings  they  were  often  inlaid  with 
mosaics  of  elegant  patterns.  The  walls  were  often 
faced  with  marble,  but  they  were  usually  adorned 
with  paintings ;  the  ceilings  were  left  uncovered,  the 
beams  supporting  the  floor  or  the  roof  above  being 


LIGHT  AND  HEA  T.  2?$ 

visible,  though  it  was  frequently  arched  over.  The 
means  of  lighting,  either  by  day  or  night,  were  de- 
fective. The  atrium  was,  as  we  have  seen,  lighted 
from  above,  and  the  same  was  true  of  other  apart- 
ments— those  at  the  side  being  illuminated  from  the 
larger  ones  in  the  middle  of  the  house.  There  were 
windows,  however,  in  the  upper  stories,  though  they 
were  not  protected  by  glass,  but  covered  with  shut- 
ters or  lattice-work,  and,  at  a  later  period,  were 
glazed  with  sheets  of  mica.  Smoking  lamps,  hang- 
ing from  the  ceiling  or  supported  by  candelabra,  or 
candles,  gave  a  gloomy  light  by  night  in  the  houses, 
and  torches  without. 

The  sun  was  chiefly  depended  upon  for  heat,  for 
there  were  no  proper  stoves,  though  braziers  were 
used  to  burn  coals  upon,  the  smoke  escaping  through 
the  aperture  in  the  ceiling,  and,  in  rare  cases,  hot- 
air  furnaces  were  constructed  below,  the  heat  being 
conveyed  to  the  upper  rooms  through  pipes.  There 
has  been  a  dispute  regarding  chimneys,  but  it  seems 
almost  certain  that  the  Romans  had  none  in  their 
dwellings,  and,  indeed,  there  was  little  need  of  them 
for  purposes  of  artificial  warmth  in  so  moderate  a 
climate  as  theirs. 

Such  were  some  of  the  chief  traits  of  the  city 
houses  of  the  Romans.  Besides  these,  there  were 
villas  in  the  country,  some  of  which  were  simply 
farm-houses,  and  others  places  of  rest  and  luxury 
supported  by  the  residents  of  cities.  The  farm 
villa  was  placed,  if  possible,  in  a  spot  secluded 
from  visitors,  protected  from  the  severest  winds,  and 
from  the  malaria  of  marshes,  in  a  well-watered  place 


280  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

near  the  foot  of  a  well-wooded  mountain.  It  had 
accommodations  for  the  kitchen,  the  wine-press,  the 
farm-superintendent,  the  slaves,  the  animals,  the 
crops,  and  the  other  products  of  the  farm.  There 
were  baths,  and  cellars  for  the  wine  and  for  the  con- 
finement of  the  slaves  who  might  have  to  be 
chained. 

Varro  thus  describes  life  at  a  rural  household: 
"  Manius  summons  his  people  to  rise  with  the  sun, 
and  in  person  conducts  them  to  the  scene  of  their 
daily  work.  The  youths  make  their  own  bed,  which 
labor  renders  soft  to  them,  and  supply  themselves 
with  water-pot  and  lamp.  Their  drink  is  the  clear 
fresh  spring;  their  fare,  bread,  with  onions  as  a 
relish.  Every  thing  prospers  in  house  and  field. 
The  house  is  no  work  of  art,  but  an  architect  might 
learnsymmetryfrom.it.  Care  is  taken  of  the  field 
that  it  shall  not  be  left  disorderly,  and  waste  or  go 
to  ruin  through  slovenliness  or  neglect ;  and,  in  re- 
turn, grateful  Ceres  wards  off  damage  from  the  prod- 
uce, that  the  high-piled  sheaves  may  gladden  the 
heart  of  the  husbandman.  Here  hospitality  still 
holds  good  ;  every  one  who  has  but  imbibed  mother's 
milk  is  welcome.  The  bread-pantry,  the  wine-vat, 
and  the  store  of  sausages  on  the  rafter, — lock  and 
key  are  at  the  service  of  the  traveller,  and  piles  of 
food  are  set  before  him  ;  contented,  the  sated  guest 
sits,  looking  neither  before  him  nor  behind,  dozing 
by  the  hearth  in  the  kitchen.  The  warmest  double- 
wool  sheepskin  is  spread  as  a  couch  for  him.  Here 
people  still,  as  good  burgesses,  obey  the  righteous 
law  which  neither  out  of  envy  injures  the  innocent, 


THE   PLEASURE    VILLA.  28 1 

nor  out  of  favor  pardons  the  guilty.  Here  they 
speak  no  evil  against  their  neighbors.  Here  they 
trespass  not  with  their  feet  on  the  sacred  hearth,  but 
honor  the  gods  with  devotion  and  with  sacrifices ; 
throw  to  the  familiar  spirit  his  little  bit  of  flesh  into 
his  appointed  little  dish,  and  when  the  master  of  the 
household  dies  accompany  the  bier  with  the  same 
prayer  with  which  those  of  his  father  and  of  his 
grandfather  were  borne  forth." 

The  pleasure  villa  had  many  of  the  appointments  of 
the  town  house,  but  was  outwardly  more  attractive, 
of  course.  It  stood  in  the  midst  of  grassy  slopes, 
was  approached  through  avenues  of  trees  leading  to 
the  portico,  before  which  was  a  terrace  and  orna- 
ments made  of  box-trees  cut  into  fantastic  forms  rep- 
resenting animals.  The  dining-room  stood  out  from 
the  other  buildings,  and  was  light  and  airy.  Perhaps 
a  grand  bedchamber  was  likewise  built  out  from  the 
others,  so  that  it  might  have  the  warmth  of  the  sun 
upon  it  through  the  entire  day.  Connected  with  the 
establishment  were  walks  ornamented  with  flower- 
beds, closely  clipped  hedges,  and  trees  tortured  into 
all  sorts  of  unnatural  shapes.  There  were  shaded 
avenues  for  gentle  exercise  afoot  or  in  litters ;  there 
were  fountains,  and  perhaps  a  hippodrome  formed 
like  a  circus,  with  paths  divided  by  hedges  and  sur- 
rounded by  large  trees  in  which  the  luxurious  owner 
and  his  guests  might  run  or  exercise  themselves  in 
the  saddle.* 

*  Roman  extravagance  ran  riot  in  the  appointments  of  the  villa. 
One  is  mentioned  that  sold  for  some  $200,000,  chiefly  because  it  com- 
prised a  desirable  fish-pond.  A  late  writer  says  of  the  site  of  Pompey's 
villa  on  a  slope  of  the  Alban  hills  :  "  It  has  never  ceased  in  all  the  in- 


282  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

In  such  houses  the  Roman  family  lived,  composed 
as  families  must  be,  of  parents  and  children,  to  which 
were  usually  added  servants,  for  after  the  earlier  times 
of  simplicity  had  passed  away  it  became  so  fashionable 
to  keep  slaves  to  perform  all  the  different  domestic 
labors,  that  one  could  hardly  claim  to  be  respectable 
unless  he  had  at  least  ten  in  his  household.  The 
first  question  asked  regarding  a  stranger  was:  "  How 
many  slaves  does  he  keep?"  and  upon  its  answer  de- 
pended the  social  position  the  person  would  have  in 
the  inquirer's  estimation.  The  son  did  not  pass  from 
his  father's  control  while  that  parent  lived,  but  the 
daughter  might  do  so  by  marriage.  The  power  of 
the  father  over  his  children  and  grandchildren,  as 
well  as  over  his  slaves  was  very  great,  and  the  family 
spirit  was  exceedingly  strong. 

When  a  man  and  a  woman  had  agreed  to  marry, 
and  the  parents  and  friends  had  given  their  consent, 
there  was  sometimes  a  formal  meeting  at  the  maid- 
en's house,  at  which  the  marriage-agreement  was 
written  out  on  tablets  and  signed  by  the  engaged 
persons.  It  seems,  too,  that  in  some  cases  the  man 
placed  a  ring  on  the  hand  of  his  betrothed.  It  was  no 
slight  affair  to  choose  the  wedding-day,  for  no  day 

tervening  ages  to  be  a  sort  of  park,  and  very  fine  ruins,  from  out 
of  whose  massive  arches  grow  a  whole  avenue  of  live  oaks,  attest  to  the 
magnificence  which  must  once  have  characterized  the  place.  The  still 
beautiful  grounds  stretch  along  the  shore  of  the  lake  as  far  as  the  gate 
of  the  town  of  Albano.  .  .  .  The  house  in  Rome  I  occupy, 
stands  in  the  old  villa  of  Maecenas,  an  immense  tract  of  land  compris- 
ing space  enough  to  contain  a  good-sized  city.  .  .  .  Where  did 
the  Flebs  live?  and  what  air  did  they  and  their  children  breathe? 
Who  cared  or  knew,  so  long  as  Pompey  or  Caesar  fared  sumptuously  ? 
What  marvel  that  there  were  revolutions  I  " 


HOW  THE  ROMANS  MARRIED.  283 

that  was  marked  ater  on  the  calendar  would  be  con- 
sidered fit  for  the  purpose  of  the  rites  that  were 
to  accompany  the  ceremony.  The  calends  (the  first 
day  of  the  month),  the  nones  (the  fifth  or.,  seventh), 
and  the  ides  (the  thirteenth  or  fifteenth),  would  not 
do,  nor  would  any  day  in  May  or  February,  nor 
many  of  the  festivals. 

In  early  times,  the  bride  dressed  herself  in  a  long 
white  robe,  adorned  with  ribbons,  and  a  purple  fringe, 
and  bound  herself  with  a  girdle  on  her  wedding  day. 
She  put  on  a  bright  yellow  veil  and  shoes  of  the 
same  color,  and  submitted  to  the  solemn  religious 
rites  that  were  to  make  her  a  wife.  The  pair  walked 
around  the  altar  hand  in  hand,  received  the  congratu- 
lations of  their  friends,  and  the  bride,  taken  with  ap- 
parent force  from  the  arms  of  her  mother,  as  the 
Sabine  women  were  taken  in  the  days  of  Romulus, 
was  conducted  to  her  new  home  carrying  a  distaff 
and  a  spindle,  emblems  of  the  industry  that  was 
thought  necessary  in  the  household  work  that  she 
was  to  perform  or  direct.  Strong  men  lifted  her  over 
the  threshold,  lest  her  foot  should  trip  upon  it,  and 
her  husband  saluted  her  with  fire  and  water,  symbolic 
of  welcome,  after  which  he  presented  her  the  keys.  A 
feast  was  then  given  to  the  entire  train  of  friends  and 
relatives,  and  probably  the  song  was  sung  of  which 
Talasia  was  the  refrain.*  Sometimes  the  husband 
gave  another  entertainment  the  next  day,  and  there 
were  other  religious  rites  after  which  the  new  wife  took 
her  proud  position  as  mater-familias,  sharing  the  hon- 
ors of  her  husband,  and  presiding  over  the  household. 
*  See  page  22. 


284  MANNERS  AND  CUSTOMS. 

The  wives  and  daughters  made  the  cloth  and  the 
dresses  of  the  household,  in  which  they  had  ample 
occupation,  but  their  labors  did  not  end  there.*  The 
grinding  of  grain  and  the  cooking  was  done  by  the 
servants,  but  the  wife  had  to  superintend  all  the 
domestic  operations,  among  which  was  included  the 
care  of  the  children,  though  old  Cato  thought  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  look  after  the  washing  and 
swaddling  of  his  children  in  person,  and  to  teach 
them  what  he  thought  they  ought  to  know.  The 
position  of  the  woman  was  entirely  subordinate  to 
the  husband,  though  in  the  house  she  was  mistress. 
She  belonged  to  the  household  and  not  to  the 
community,  and  was  to  be  called  to  account  for  her 
doings  by  her  father,  her  husband,  or  her  near  male 
relatives,  not  by  her  political  ruler.  She  could 
acquire  property  and  inherit  money  the  same  as  a 
man  could,  however.  When  the  pure  and  noble 
period  of  Roman  history  had  passed,  women 
became  as  corrupt  as  the  rest  of  the  community. 
The  watering-places  were  scenes  of  unblushing 
wickedness;  women  of  quality,  but  not  of  charac- 
ter, masquerading  before  the  gay  world  with  the 

*  Varro  contrasts  the  later  luxury  with  past  frugality,  setting  in  op- 
position the  spacious  granaries,  and  simple  farm  arrangements  of  the 
good  old  times,  and  the  peacocks  and  richly  inlaid  doors  of  a  de- 
generate age  Formerly  even  the  city  matron  turned  the  spindle  with 
her  own  hand,  while  at  the  same  time  she  kept  her  eye  upon  the  pot 
on  the  hearth  ;  now  the  wife  begs  the  husband  for  a  bushel  of  pearls, 
and  the  daughter  demands  a  pound  of  precious  stones  :  then  the  wife 
was  quite  content  if  the  husband  gave  her  a  trip  once  or  twice  in  the 
year  in  an  uncushioned  wagon  ;  now  she  sulks  if  he  go  to  his  country 
estate  without  her,  and  as  she  travels  my  lady  is  attended  to  the  villa 
by  the  fashionable  host  of  Greek  menials  and  singers. 


ROMAN  GARMENTS. 


285 


most    reckless   disregard   of   all    the   proprieties   of 
life.* 

The  garments  of  Roman  men  and  women  were  of 
extreme  simplicity  for  a  long  period,  but  the  desire 
of  display  and  the  love  of  ornament  succeeded  in 
making  them  at  last  highly  adorned  and  varied. 
Both  men  and  women  wore  two  principal  garments, 
the  tunic  next  to  the  body,  and  the  pallium  which 
was  thrown  over  it  when  going  abroad ;  but  they 
also  each  had  a  distinctive  article  of  dress,  the  men 
wearing  the  toga  (originally  worn  also  by  women),  a 
flowing  outer  garment  which  no  foreigner  could  use, 


COVERINGS    FOR   THE   FEET.. 

and  the  women  the  stola,  which  fell  over  the  tunic  to 
the  ankles  and  was  bound  about  the  waist  by  a 
girdle.  Boys  and  girls  wore  a  toga  with  a  broad 
border  of  purple,  but  when  the  boy  became  a  man  he 
threw  this  off  and  wore  one  of  the  natural  white 
color  of  the  wool. 

Sometimes  the  stola  was  clasped  over  the  shoulder, 
and  in  some  instances  it  had  sleeves.     The  pallium 

*  Cato  the  Elder,  who  enjoyed  uttering  invectives  against  women, 
was  free  in  denouncing  their  chattering,  their  love  of  dress 
governable  spirit,  and  condemned  the  whole  sex  as  plaguy  and  proud, 
without  whom  men  would  probably  be  more  godly. 


286  MANNERS  AND  CUSTOMS. 

was  a  square  outer  garment  of  woollen  goods,  put  on 
by  women  as  well  as  men  when  going  out.  It  came 
into  use  during  the  civil  wars,  but  was  forbidden  by 
Augustus.  Both  sexes  also  wore  in  travelling  a 
thick,  long  cloak  without  sleeves,  called  the  pcznula, 
and  the  men  wore  also  over  the  toga  a  dark  cloak, 
the  lacerna. 

On  their  feet  the  men  wore  slippers,  boots,  and 
shoes  of  various  patterns.  The  soccus  was  a  slipper 
not  tied,  worn  in  the  house ;  and  the  solea  a  very 
light  sandal,  also  used  in  the  house  only.  The 
sandalium  proper  was  a  rich  and  luxurious  sandal 
introduced  from  Greece  and  worn  by  women  only. 
The  baxa  was  a  coarse  sandal  made  of  twigs,  used  by 
philosophers  and  comic  actors ;  the  calcceus  was  a 
shoe  that  covered  the  foot,  though  the  toes  were 
often  exposed  ;  and  the  cothurnus,  a  laced  boot  worn 
by  horsemen,  hunters,  men  of  authority,  and  tragic 
actors,  and  it  left  the  toes  likewise  exposed. 

An  examination  of  the  mysteries  of  the  dressing- 
rooms  of  the  ladies  of  Rome  displays  most  of  the 
toilet  conveniences  that  women  still  use.  They 
dressed  their  hair  in  a  variety  of  styles  (see  page  155), 
and  used  combs,  dyes,  oils,  and  pomades  just  as  they 
now  do.  They  had  mirrors,  perfumes,  soaps  in  great 
variety,  hair-pins,  ear-rings,  bracelets,  necklaces,  gay 
caps  and  turbans,  and  sometimes  ornamental  wigs. 

The  change  that  came  over  Rome  during  the  long 
period  of  the  kingdom  and  the  republic  is  perhaps  as 
evident  in  the  table  customs  as  in  any  respect.  For 
centuries  the  simple  Roman  sat  down  at  noon  to  a 
plain  dinner  of  boiled  pudding  made  of  spelt  (far), 


COLD  DISHES  AND  HOT.  287 

and  fruits,  which,  with  milk,  butter,  and  vegetables, 
formed  the  chief  articles  of  his  diet.  His  table  was 
plain,  and  his  food  was  served  warm  but  once  a  day 


ARTICLES  OF  THE   ROMAN  TOILET. 

When  the  national  horizon  had  been  enlarged  by  the 
foreign  wars,  and  Asiatic  and  Greek  influences  began 
to  be  felt,  hot  dishes  were  served  oftener,  and 


288  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

the  two  courses  of  the  principal  meal  no  longei 
sufficed  to  satisfy  the  fashionable  appetite.  A 
baker's  shop  was  opened  at  the  time  of  the  war 
with  Perseus,  and  scientific  cookery  rapidly  came 
into  vogue. 

We  cannot  follow  the  course  of  the  history  of  in- 
creasing luxury  in  its  details.  Towards  the  end  of 
the  republic,  breakfast  {jentacnlum\  consisting  of 
bread  and  cheese,  with  perhaps  dried  fruit,  was 
taken  at  a  very  early  hour,  in  an  informal  way,  the 
guests  not  even  sitting  down.  At  twelve  or  one 
o'clock  luncheon  followed  (prandiuiri).  There  was 
considerable  variety  in  this  meal.  The  principal 
repast  of  the  day  (ccena)  occurred  late  in  the  after- 
noon, some  time  just  before  sunset,  there  having 
been  the  same  tendency  to  make  the  hour  later  and 
later  that  has  been  manifested  in  England  and 
America.  There  were  three  usual  courses,  the 
first  comprising  stimulants  to  the  appetite,  eggs, 
olives,  oysters,  lettuce,  and  a  variety  of  other 
such  delicacies.  For  the  second  course  the  whole 
world  was  put  under  requisition.  There  were  tur- 
bots  and  sturgeon,  eels  and  prawns,  boar's  flesh  and 
venison,  pheasants  and  peacocks,  ducks  and  capons, 
turtles  and  flamingoes,  pickled  tunny-fishes,  truffles 
and  mushrooms,  besides  a  variety  of  other  dishes 
that  it  is  impossible  to  mention  here.  After  these 
came  the  dessert,  almonds  and  raisins  and  dates, 
cheese-cakes  and  sweets  and  apples.  Thus  the  egg 
came  at  the  beginning,  and  the  apple,  representative, 
of  fruit  in  general,  at  the  end,  a  fact  that  gave 
Horace  ground  for  his  expression,  ab  ovo  usque  ad 


THE  FORMAL  DINNER.  289 

mala,  from  the  egg  to  the  apple,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end.* 

The  Roman  dinner  was  served  with  all  the  osten- 
tatious elegance  and  formality  of  our  own  days,  if 
not  with  more.  The  guests  assembled  in  gay  dresses 
ornamented  with  flowers ;  they  took  off  their  shoes, 
lest  the  couch,  inlaid  with  ivory,  perhaps,  or  adorned 
with  cloth  of  gold,  should  be  soiled  ;  and  laid  them- 
selves down  to  eat,  each  one  adjusting  his  napkin 
carefully,  and  taking  his  position  according  to  his 
relative  importance,  the  middle  place  being  deemed 
the  most  honorable.  About  the  tables  stood  the 
servants,  dressed  in  the  tunic,  and  carrying  napkins 
or  rough  cloths  to  wipe  off  the  table,  which  was  of 
the  richest  wood  and  covered  by  no  cloth.  While 
some  served  the  dishes,  often  of  magnificent  designs, 
other  slaves  offered  the  feasters  water  to  rinse  their 
hands,  or  cooled  the  room  with  fans.  At  times 
music  and  dances  were  added  to  give  another  charm 
to  the  scene. 

The  first  occupation  of  the  Romans  was  agricul- 
ture, in  which  was  included  the  pasturage  of  flocks 
and  herds.  In  process  of  time  trades  were  learned, 
and  manufactures  (literally  making  with  the  hand, 
manus,  the  hand,  facere,  to  make)  were  introduced, 
but  not,  of  course,  to  any  thing  like  the  extent  fa- 

*  The  practical  side  of  the  Roman  priesthood  was  the  priestly  cuis- 
ine;  the  augural  and  pontifical  banquets  were,  as  we  may  say,  the 
official  gala  days  in  the  life  of  a  Roman  epicure,  and  several  of  them 
form  epochs  in  the  history  of  gastronomy  :  the  banquet  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  inauguration  of  the  augur  Quintus  Hortensius,  for  in- 
stance, brought  roast  peacocks  into  vogue. — Mommsen.  JJook  JV, 
13. 


290  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

miliar  in  our  times.  There  were  millers  and  shoe- 
makers,  butchers  and  tanners,  bakers  and  blacksmiths, 
besides  other  tradesmen  and  laborers.  In  the  pro- 
cess of  time  there  were  also  artists,  but  in  this  respect 
Rome  did  not  excel  as  Greece  had  long  before. 
There  were  also  physicians,  lawyers,  and  teachers, 
besides  office-holders.* 

When  the  Roman  wished  to  go  from  place  to  place 
he  had  a  variety  of  modes  among  which  to  choose, 
as  we  have  already  had  suggested  by  Horace  in  his 
account  of  the  trip  from  Rome  to  Brundusium.  He 
might  have  his  horse  saddled,  and  his  saddle-bags 
packed,  as  our  fathers  did  of  yore  ;  he  could  do  as  one 
of  the  rich  provincial  governors  described  by  Cicero 
did  when,  at  the  opening  of  a  Sicilian  spring,  he  en- 
tered his  rose-scented  litter,  carried  by  eight  bearers, 
reclining  on  a  cushion  of  Maltese  gauze,  with  gar- 
lands about  his  head  and  neck,  applying  a  delicate 
scent  bag  to  his  nose  as  he  went.  There  were 
wagons  and  cars,  in  which  he  might  drive  over  the 
hard  and  smooth  military  roads,  and  canate ;  and 

*  There  were  office-seekers,  also,  and  of  the  most  persistent  kind, 
throughout  the  whole  history  of  the  republic,  and  they  practised  the 
corrupt  arts  of  the  most  ingenious  of  the  class  in  modern  times.  The 
candidate  went  about  clad  in  a  toga  of  artificial  whiteness  (canJiifus, 
white),  accompanied  by  a  nornenclator,  who  gave  him  the  names  of  the 
voters  they  might  meet,  so  that  he  could  compliment  them  by  ad- 
dressing them  familiarly,  and  he  shook  them  by  the  hand.  He 
"treated"  the  voters  to  drink  or  food  in  a  very  modern  fashion, 
though  with  a  more  than  modern  profusion  ;  and  he  went  to  the  ex- 
treme of  bribing  them  if  treating  did  not  suffice.  Against  these  prac- 
tices Coriolanus  haughtily  protests,  in  Shakespeare's  play.  Some- 
times condidates  canvassed  for  votes  outside  of  Rome,  as  Cicero 
vroposed  ?ji  one  of  his  letters  to 


LAW  AND  PUNISHMENT.  2QI 

along  the  routes,  there  were,  as  Horace  has  told  us, 
taverns  at  which  hospitality  was  to  be  expected. 

The  Roman  law  was  remarkable  for  embodying  in 
itself  "  the  eternal  principles  of  freedom  and  of 
subordination,  of  property  and  legal  redress,"  which 
still  reign  unadulterated  and  unmodified,  as  Momm- 
sen  says ;  and  this  system  this  strong  people  not 
only  endured  but  actually  ordained  for  itself,  and  it 
involved  the  principle  that  a  free  man  could  not  be 
tortured,  a  principle  which  other  European  peoples 
embraced  only  after  a  terrible  and  bloody  struggle 
of  a  thousand  years. 

One  of  the  punishments  is  worthy  of  mention 
here.  We  have  already  noticed  its  infliction.  It 
was  ordered  that  a  person  might  not  live  in  a  certain 
region,  or  that  he  be  confined  to  a  certain  island, 
and  that  he  be  interdicted  from  fire  and  water,  those 
two  essentials  to  life,  in  case  he  should  overstep  the 
bounds  mentioned.  These  elements  with  the  Ro- 
mans had  a  symbolical  meaning,  and  when  the 
husband  received  his  bride  with  fire  and  water,  he 
signified  that  his  protection  should  ever  be  over  her. 
Thus  their  interdiction  meant  the  withdrawal  of  the 
protection  of  the  state  from  a  person,  which  left 
him  an  outlaw.  Such  a  law  could  only  have  been 
made  after  the  nation  had  become  possessed  of 
regions  somewhat  remote  from  its  centre  of  power. 
England  can  now  exile  its  criminals  to  another 
hemisphere,  and  Russia  to  a  distant  region  of  des< 
and  cold,  but  neither  country  could  have  punished  by 
exile  before  it  owned  such  regions, 


XIX. 

THE   ROMAN    READING    AND   WRITING. 

IN  the  earliest  times  the  education  of  young 
Romans  was  probably  confined  to  instruction  in 
dancing  and  music,  though  they  became  acquainted 
with  the  processes  of  agriculture  by  being  called 
upon  to  practise  them  in  company  with  their  elders. 
It  was  not  long  before  the  elementary  attainments 
of  reading,  writing,  and  counting  were  brought 
within  their  reach,  even  among  the  lower  orders  and 
the  slaves,  and  we  know  that  it  was  thought  impor- 
tant to  make  the  latter  class  proficient  in  many 
departments  of  scholarship. 

The  advance  in  the  direction  of  real  mental  cul- 
ture was,  however,  not  great  until  after  the  contact 
with  Greece.  So  long  as  the  Romans  remained  a 
strong  and  self-centred  people,  deriving  little  but 
tribute  from  peoples  beyond  the  Italian  peninsula, 
and  looking  with  disdain  upon  all  outside  that  limit, 
there  was  not  much  to  stimulate  their  mental  prog- 
ress ;  but  when  contrast  with  another  civilization 
showed  that  there  was  much  power  to  be  gained  by 
knowledge,  it  was  naturally  more  eagerly  sought. 
The  slaves  and  other  foreigners,  to  whom  the  in- 
struction of  the  children  was  assigned,  were  familial 


PROGRESS  IN  LETTERS. 

with  the  Greek  language,  and  it  had  the  great  ad- 
vantage over  Latin  of  being  the  casket  in  which  an 
illustrious  literature  was  preserved.  For  this  reason 
Roman  progress  in  letters  was  founded  upon  that  of 
Greece. 

The  Roman  parent  for  a  long  time  made  the 
Twelve  Tables  the  text-book  from  which  his  children 
were  taught,  thus  giving  them  a  smattering  of  read- . 
ing,  of  writing,  and  of  the  laws  of  the  land  at  once. 
Roman  authorship  and  the  study  of  grammar,  how- 
ever, were  about  coincident  in  their  beginnings 
with  the  temporary  cessation  of  war  and  the  second 
closing  of  the  temple  of  Janus.  Cato  the  elder  pre- 
pared manuals  for  the  instruction  of  youth  (or, 
perhaps,  one  manual  in  several  parts),  which  gave  his 
views  on  morals,  oratory,  medicine,  war,  and  agri- 
culture (a  sort  of  encyclopaedia),  and  a  history  enti- 
tled Origines,  which  recounted  the  traditions  of  the 
kings,  told  the  story  of  the  origin  of  the  Italian 
towns,  of  the  Punic  wars,  and  of  other  events  down 
to  the  time  of  his  own  death.*  This  seems  to 
have  originated  in  the  author's  natural  interest  in 
the  education  of  his  son,  a  stimulating  cause  of 
much  literature  of  the  same  kind  since. 

The  Roman  knowledge  of  medicine  came  first 
from  the  Etruscans,  to  whom  they  are  said  to  have 
owed  so  much  other  culture,  and  subsequently  from 
the  Greeks.  The  first  person  to  make  a  distinct 
profession  of  medicine  at  Rome,  however,  was  not 

*  See  page  153.  "  Cato's  encyclopaedia  .  .  .  was  little  more 
than  an  embodiment  of  the  old  Roman  household  knowledge,  and 
truly  when  compared  with  the  Hellenic  culture  of  the  period,  was 
scanty  enough." — MOMMSEN,  bk.  IV.,  ch.  12. 


294      THE  KOMAtf  KEADTNG  AND  WRITING. 

an  Etruscan,  but  a  Greek,  named  Archagathus,  who 
settled  there  in  the  year  219,  just  before  the  second 
Punic  war  broke  out.  He  was  received  with  great 
respect,  and  a  shop  was  bought  for  him  at  the  public 
expense  ;  but  his  practice,  which  was  largely  surgi- 
cal, proved  too  severe  to  be  popular.  In  earlier 
days  the  father  had  been  the  family  physician,  and 
Cato  vigorously  reviled  the  foreign  doctors,  and  like 
the  true  conservative  that  he  was,  strove  to  bring 
back  the  good  old  times  that  his  memory  painted  ; 
but  his  efforts  did  not  avail,  and  the  professional 
practice  of  the  healing  art  not  only  became  one  of 
the  most  lucrative  in  Rome,  but  remained  for  a  long 
period  almost  a  monopoly  in  the  hands  of  foreigners. 
Science,  among  the  latest  branches  of  knowledge  to 
be  freed  from  the  swaddling-clothes  of  empiricism, 
received,  in  its  applied  form,  some  attention,  though 
mathematics  and  physics  were  not  specially  favored 
as  subjects  of  investigation. 

The  progress  of  Roman  culture  is  distinctly  shown 
by  a  comparison  of  the  curriculum  of  Cato  with  that 
of  Marcus  Terentius  Varro,  a  long-time  friend  of 
Cicero,  though  ten  years  his  senior.*  Varro  ob- 
tained from  Quintilian  the  title  "the  most  learned 
of  the  Romans,"  and  St.  Augustine  said  that  it  was 
astonishing  that  he  could  write  so  much,  and  that 

*  Varro  is  said  to  have  written  of  his  youth  .  "For  me  when  a  boy 
there  sufficed  a  single  rough  coat  and  a  single  undergarment,  shoes 
without  stockings,  a  horse  without  a  saddle.  I  had  no  daily  warm 
bath,  and  but  seldom  a  river  bath."  Still,  he  utters  warnings  against 
over-feeding  and  over-sleeping,  as  well  as  against  cakes  and  high 
living,  pointing  to  his  own  youthful  training,  and  says  that  dogs  were 
in  his  later  years  more  judiciously  cared  for  than  children. 


PRIMARY  INSTRUCTION.  2g$ 

one  could  scarcely  believe  that  anybody  could  find 
time  even  to  read  all  that  he  wrote.  He  was  pro- 
scribed  by  the  triumvirs  at  the  same  time  that 
Cicero  was,  but  was  fortunate  enough  to  escape  and 
subsequently  to  be  placed  under  the  protection  of 
Augustus.  Cato  thought  that  a  proper  man  ought 
to  study  oratory,  medicine,  husbandry,  war,  and  law, 
and  was  at  liberty  to  look  into  Greek  literature  a 
little,  that  he  might  cull  from  the  mass  of  chaff  and 
rubbish,  as  he  affected  to  deem  it,  some  serviceable 
maxims  of  practical  experience,  but  he  might  not 
study  it  thoroughly.  Varro  extended  the  limit  of 
allowed  and  fitting  studies  to  grammar,  logic, 
rhetoric,  geometry,  arithmetic,  astronomy,  music, 
medicine,  and  architecture. 

.  Young  children  were  led  to  their  first  studies  by 
the  kindergarten  path  of  amusement,  learning  their 
letters  as  we  learned  them  ourselves  by  means  of 
blocks,  and  spelling  by  repeating  the  letters  and 
words  in  unison  after  the  instructor.  Dictation 
exercises  were  turned  to  account  in  the  study  of 
grammar  and  orthography,  and  writing  was  taught 
by  imitation,  though  the  "  copy-book "  was  not 
paper,  but  a  tablet  covered  with  a  thin  coating  of 
wax,  and  the  pen  a  stylus,  pencil-shaped,  sharp  at 
one  end  and  flat  at  the  other,  so  that  the  mark  made 
by  the  point  might  be  smoothed  out  by  reversing 
the  instrument.  Thus  vertcre  stUnni,  to  turn  the 
stylus,  meant  to  correct  or  to  erase.*  The  first 
school-book  seems  to  have  been  an  Odyssey,  by  one 
Livius  Andrauiajs,  probably  a  Tarentine,  who  was 

*  See  illustrations  on  pages  23  and  219. 


296       THE  ROMAN  READING  AND  WRITING, 

captured  during  the  wars  in  Southern  Italy.  He 
became  a  slave,  of  course,  and  was  made  instructor 
of  his  master's  children.  He  familiarized  himself 
with  the  Latin  language,  and  wrote  dramas  in  it. 
Thus  though  he  was  a  native  of  Magna  Graecia,  he 
is  usually  mentioned  as  the  first  Roman  poet.  It  is 
not  known  whether  his  Odyssey  and  other  writings 
were  imitations  of  the  Greek  or  translations,  but  it 
matters  little;  they  were  immediately  appreciated 
and  held  their  own  so  well  that  they  were  read  in 
schools  as  late  as  the  time  of  Horace.  This  first 
awakener  of  Roman  literary  effort  was  born  at  the 
time  of  Pyrrhus  and  died  before  the  battle  of  Zama. 
A  few  other  Roman  writers  of  prominence  claim 
our  attention.  With  some  reason  the  Romans 
looked  upon  £rmiu,s  as  the  father  of  their  literature. 
He,  like  Andronicus,  was  a  native  of  Magna  Graecia, 
claiming  lordly  ancestors,  and  boasting  that  the 
spirit  of  Homer,  after  passing  through  many  mortal 
bodies,  had  entered  his  own.  His  works  remain  only 
in  fragments  gathered  from  others  who  had  quoted 
them,  and  we  cannot  form  any  accurate  opinion  of 
his  rank  as  a  poet ;  but  we  know  that  his  success  was 
so  great  that  Cicero  considered  him  the  prince  of 
Roman  song,  that  Virgil  was  indebted  to  him  for 
many  thoughts  and  expressions,  and  that  even  the 
brilliance  of  the  Augustan  poets  did  not  lessen  his 
reputation.  His  utterances  were  vigorous,  bold,  fresh, 
and  full  of  the  spirit  of  the  brave  old  days.  He 
found  the  language  rough,  uncultivated,  and  un- 
formed, and  left  it  softer,  more  harmonious,  and  pos- 
sessed of  a  system  of  versification.  He  was  born  in 


PICTOR  AND  PLAUTUS.  2Q/ 

239  B.C.,  the  year  after  the  first  plays  of  Andronicus 
had  been  exhibited  on  the  Roman  stage,  and  died 
just  before  the  complete  establishment  of  the  uni- 
versal empire  of  Rome  as  a  consequence  of  the 
battle  of  Pydna.* 

-s.At  the  head  of  the  list  of  Roman  pro.se  annalists 
stands  the  name  of  Quintus  Fabius  Pictor.  at  one 
time  a  senator,  who  wrote  a  history  of  his  nation  be- 
ginning, probably,  like  other  Roman  works  of  its 
class,  with  the  coming  of  y£neas,  and  narrating  later 
events,  to  the  end  of  the  second  Punic  war,  with 
some  degree  of  minuteness.  He  wrote  in  Greek, 
and  made  the  usual  effort  to  preserve  and  transmit  a 
sufficiently  good  impression  of  the  greatness  of  his 
own  people.  That  Pictor  was  a  senator  proves  his 
social  importance,  which  is  still  further  exemplified 
by  the  fact  that  after  the  carnage  of  Cannae,  he  was 
sent  to  Delphi  to  learn  for  his  distressed  countrymen 
how  they  might  appease  the  angry  gods.  We  only 
know  that  his  history  was  of  great  value  from  the  fre- 
quent use  that  was  made  of  it  by  subsequent  investi- 
gators in  the  antiquities  of  the  Roman  people,  be- 
cause no  manuscript  of  it  has  been  preserved, 
x  Titus  Macciys,  surnamed,  from  the  flatness  of  his 
feet,  Plautus,  was  the  greatest  among  the  comic 
poets  of  Rome.  Of  humble  origin,  he  was  driven  to 
literature  by  his  necessities,  and  it  was  while  turning 
the  crank  of  a  baker's  hand-mill  that  he  began  the 
work  by  which  he  is  now  known.  He  wrote  three 
plays  which  were  accepted  by  the  managers  of  the 
public  games,  and  he  was  thus  able  to  turn  his  back 

*  See  page  164. 


298        THE  ROMAN  READING  AND   WRITING. 

upon  menial  drudgery.  Born  at  an  Umbrian  village 
during  the  first  Punic  war,  not  far  from  the  year 
when  Regulus  was  taken,*  he  came  to  Rome  at 
an  early  age,  and  after  he  began  to  write,  produced  a 
score  or  more  of  plays  which  captivated  both  the 
learned  and  the  uneducated  by  their  truth  to  the  life 
that  they  depicted,  and  they  held  their  high  reputa- 
tion long  after  the  death  of  the  author.  Moderns 
have  also  attested  their  merit,  and  our  great  drama- 
tist in  his  amusing  Comedy  of  Errors  imitated  the 
Mentzchmi  of  this  early  play-wright.f 

Publius  Terentius  Af££,  commonly  known  as  Ter- 
rence,  the  second  and  last  of  the  CQj»ie-po«ts,  was  of 
no  higher  social  position  than  Plautus,  and  was  no 
more  a  Roman  than  the  other  writers  we  have  re- 
ferred to,  for  he  was  a  native  of  Carthage,  Rome's 
great  rival,  where  he  was  born  at  the  time  that  Han- 
nibal was  a  refugee  at  the  court  of  Antiochus  at 
Ephesus.  In  spite  of  his  foreign  origin,  Terence  was 
of  sufficient  ability  to  exchange  the  slave-pen  of 
Carthage  for  the  society  of  the  best  circles  in 
Rome,  and  he  attained  to  such  purity  and  ease  in 
the  use  of  his  adopted  tongue  that  Cicero  and  Caesar 
scarcely  surpass  him  in  those  respects.  His  first  play, 
the  Andria  (the  Woman  of  Andros),  was  produced 

*  See  page  133. 

f  Rude  farces,  known  as  Atellatuz  Fabula,  were  introduced  into 
Rome  after  the  contact  with  the  Campanians,  from  one  of  whose 
towns,  Atella,  they  received  their  name.  Though  they  were  at  a  later 
time  divided  into  acts,  they  seem  to  have  been  at  first  simply  impro- 
vised raillery  and  satire  without  dramatic  connection.  The  Atellan 
plays  were  later  than  the  imitations  of  Etruscan  acting  mentioned 
on  page  no. 


TERENCE   AND  CICERO. 

in  1 66  B.C.,  the  year  before  Polybius  and  the  other 
Achaeans  were  transported  to  Rome.*  It  has  been 
imitated  and  copied  in  modern  times,  and  notably  by 
Sir  Richard  Steele  in  his  Conscious  Lovers.  Andria 
was  followed  by  Hecyra  (the  Stepmother),  Heauton- 
tiiiwroumenos,  (the  Self-Tormentor),  EumicJnts  (the 
Eunuch),  Phormio  (named  from  a  parasite  who  is  an 
active  agent  in  the  plot),  and  Adelphi  (the  Brothers), 
the  plot  of  which  was  mainly  derived  from  a  Greek 
play  of  the  same  title.  This  foreign  influence  is  fur- 
ther shown  in  the  names  of  these  plays,  which  are 
Greek. 

N  -Catp,  the  Censor,  found  time  among  his  varied  pub- 
lic labors  to  contribute  to  the  literature  of  his  lan- 
guage. His  Origines  and  other  works  have  already 
been  mentioned. f  The  varied  literary  productions 
of  Cicero  have  also  come  under  our  notice, :{:  but  they 
deserve  more  attention,  though  they  are  too  many  to 
be  enumerated.  Surpassing  all  others  in  the  art  of 
public  speaking,  he  was  evidently  well  prepared  to 
write  on  rhetoric  and  oratory  as  he  did  ;  but  his  gen- 
eral information  and  scholarly  taste  led  him  to  go  far 
beyond  this  limit,  and  he  made  considerable  investi- 
gations in  the  domains  of  politics,  history,  and  philos- 
ophy, law,  theology,  and  morals,  besides  practising 
his  hand  in  his  earlier  years  on  the  manufacture  of 
verses  that  have  not  added  to  his  reputation.  The 
writings  of  Cicero  of  greatest  interest  to  us  now 
are  his  orations  and  correspondence,  both  of  which 
give  us  intimate  information  concerning  life  and 

*  See  page  164  ;  and  portrait,  page  141. 
f  See  pages  153  and  239.        \  See  page  202. 


30O       THE  ROMAN  READING  AND  WRITING. 

events  that  is  of  inestimable  value,  and  it  is  con- 
veyed in  a  literary  style  at  once  so  appropriate  and 
attractive  that  it  is  itself  forgotten  in  the  impressive 
interest  of  the  narrative.  The  period  covered  by  the 
eight  hundred  letters  of  Cicero  that  have  been  pre- 
served is  one  of  the  utmost  importance  in  Roman 
history,  and  the  author  and  his  correspondents  wen 
in  the  hottest  of  the  exciting  movements  of  th^ 
time. 

When  he  writes  without  reserve,  he  gives  his 
modern  readers  confidential  revelations  of  the  ut- 
most piquancy  ;  and  when  he  words  his  epistles  with 
diplomatic  care,  he  displays  with  equal  acuteness,  to 
the  student  familiar  with  the  intrigues  of  public  life 
at  Rome  at  the  time,  the  sinuosities  of  contemporary 
statesmanship  and  the  wiles  of  the  wary  politician, 
and  the  revelation  is  all  the  more  entertaining  and 
important  because  it  is  an  unintentional  exhibition. 
The  orations  of  Cicero  are  likewise  storehouses  of 
details  connected  with  public  and  private  life,  gath- 
ered with  the  minute  care  of  an  advocate  persist- 
ently in  earnest  and  determined  not  to  allow  any 
item  to  pass  unnoticed  that  might  affect  the  decision 
of  his  cause. 

The  learned  Varrr>,  already  mentioned,  deserves  far 
more  attention  than  we  can  afford  him.  He  had  the 
advantage  at  an  early  age  of  the  acquaintance  of  a 
scholar  of  high  attainments  in  Greek  and  Latin  lit- 
erature, who  was  well  acquainted  also  with  the  his- 
tory of  his  own  country,  from  whom  he  imbibed  a 
love  of  intellectual  pursuits.  During  the  wars  with 
the  pirates  (in  which  he  obtained  the  naval  crown) 


THE  LEARNED    VARRO.  3OI 

and  with  Mithridates,  he  held  a  high  command,  and 
after  supporting  Pompey  and  the  senate  during  the 
civil  struggles,  he  was  compelled  to  surrender  to 
Ceesar  (though  he  was  not  changed  in  his  opinions), 
and  passed  over  to  Greece,  where  he  was  finally 
overcome  by  the  dictator,  and  owed  his  subsequent 
pportunities  for  study  to  the  clemency  of  his  con- 
jiieror,  who  gave  him  pardon  after  the  battle  of 
Pharsalia.  All  the  rest  of  his  life  was  passed  aloof 
from  the  storm  that  raged  around  him,  the  circum- 
stances of  his  proscription  and  pardon  being  the 
only  indication  of  his  personal  connection  with  it. 
He  died  in  the  year  28  B.C.,  after  the  temple  of 
Janus  had  been  closed  the  third  time,  when  Augus- 
tus had  entered  upon  the  enjoyment  of  his  absolute 
power. 

*/•  Of  nearly  five  hundred  works  that  Varro  is  said  to 
have  written,  one  only  has  come  down  to  our  time 
complete,  though  some  portions  of  another  are  also 
preserved.  The  first  is  a  laboriously  methodical  and 
thorough  treatise  on  agriculture.  The  other  work  (a 
treatise  on  Latin  grammar)  is  of  value  in  its  muti- 
lated and  imperfect  state  (it  seems  never  to  have 
received  its  author's  final  revision),  because  it  pre- 
serves many  terms  and  forms  that  would  otherwise 
have  been  lost,  besides  much  curious  information 
concerning  ancient  civil  and  religious  usages.  In 
regard  to  the  derivation  of  words,  his  principles 
are  sound,  but  his  practice  is  often  amusingly 
absurd.  We  must  remember,  however,  that  the 
science  of  language  did  not  advance  beyond  infancy 
until  after  our  own  century  had  opened.  The 


302       THE  ROMAN  READING  AND  WRITING. 

great  reputation  of  Varro  was  founded  upon  a  work 
now  lost,  entitled  "  Book  of  Antiquities,"  in  the  first 
part  of  which  he  discussed  the  creation  and  history 
of  man,  especially  of  man  in  Italy  from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  city  in  753  B.C.  (which  date  he  estab- 
lished), not  omitting  reference  to  ALneas,  of  course, 
and  presenting  details  of  the  manners  and  social 
customs  of  the  people  during  all  their  career.  In  a 
second  part  Varro  gave  his  attention  to  Divine  An- 
tiquities, and  as  St.  Augustine  drew  largely  from  it 
in  his  "  City  of  God,"  we  may  be  said  to  be  familiar 
with  it  at  second  hand.  It  was  a  complete  my- 
thology of  Italy,  minutely  describing  every  thing 
relating  to  the  services  of  religion,  the  festivals,  tem- 
ples, offerings,  priests,  and  so  on.  Probably  the  loss 
of  the  works  of  Varro  may  be  accounted  for  by  their 
lack  of  popular  interest,  or  by  their  infelicities  of 
style,  which  rendered  them  little  attractive  to  readers, 
-f.  Julius  QESAT  must  be  included  among  the  authors 
of  Rome,  though  most  of  his  works'  are  lost,  his 
Commentaries  (mentioned  on  p.  226)  being  the  only 
one  remaining.  This  book  is  written  in  Latin  of 
great  purity,  and  shows  that  the  author  was  master 
of  a  clear  style,  though  the  nature  of  the  work  did 
not  admit  him  to  exhibit  many  of  the  graces  of  dic- 
tion. The  Commentaries  seem  to  have  been  put  into 
form  in  winter  quarters,  though  roughly  written 
during  the  actual  campaigns.  Caesar  always  took 
pleasure  in  literary  pursuits  and  in  the  society  of  men 
of  letters. 

Valerius  Catullus,  a  contemporary  of  the  writers 
just  named,  was  born  when  Cinna  was  Consul  (B.C. 


CATULLUS  AND  LUCRETIUS.  303 

87),  and  died  at  the  age  of  thirty  or  forty,  for  the 
dates  given  as  that  of  his  death  are  quite  doubtful. 
His  father  was  a  man  of  means  and  a  friend  of 
Caesar,  whom  he  frequently  entertained.  Catullus 
owned  a  villa  near  Tibur,  but  he  took  up  his  abode 
at  Rome  when  very  young,  and  mingled  freely  in 
the  gayest  society,  the  expensive  pleasures  of  which 
made  great  inroads  upon  his  moderate  wealth.  Like 
other  Romans,  he  looked  to  a  career  in  the  prov- 
inces for  means  of  improving  his  fortune,  but  was 
disappointed,  and  like  our  own  Chaucer,  but  more 
frequently,  he  pours  forth  lamentations  to  his  empty 
purse.  He  was  evidently  a  friend  of  most  of  the 
prominent  men  of  letters  of  his  time,  and  he  entered 
freely  into  the  debauchery  of  the  period.  Thus  his 
verse  gives  a  representation  of  the  debased  manners 
of  the  day  in  gay  society.  His  style  was  remarkably 
felicitous,  and  it  is  said  that  he  adorned  all  that  he 
touched.  Most  of  his  poems  are  quite  short,  and 
their  subjects  range  from  a  touching  outburst  of 
genuine  grief  for  a  brother's  death  to  a  fugitive 
epigram  of  the  most  voluptuous  trivality.  His  verses 
display  ease  and  impetuosity,  tumultuous  merriment 
and  wild  passion,  playful  grace  and  slashing  invec- 
tive, vigorous  simplicity  and  ingenious  imitation  of 
the  learned  stiffness  and  affectation  of  the  Alexan- 
drian school.  They  are  strongly  national,  despite 
the  author's  use  of  foreign  materials,  and  made 
Catullus  exceedingly  popular  among  his  country- 
men. 

Lucretius  (Titus  Lucretius  Carus)  was  a  native  of 
Italy,  whose  birth  is  said  to  have  occurred  B.C.  95. 


3O4       THE  ROMAN  READING  AND   WRITING. 

His  death  was  caused  by  his  own  hand,  or  by  a 
philtre  administered  by  another,  about  50  B.C.,  and 
very  little  is  known  about  his  life.  His  great  work, 
entitled  About  the  Nature  of  Things  (De  Rerum 
Naturd),  is  a  long  poem,  in  which  an  attempt  is 
made  to  present  in  clear  terms  the  leading  principles 
of  the  philosophy  of  Epicurus,  and  it  is  acknowl- 
edged to  be  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  world's  didac- 
tic poems.  He  undertakes  to  demonstrate  that  the 
miseries  of  men  may  be  traced  to  a  slavish  dread  of 
the  gods ;  and  in  order  to  remove  such  apprehen- 
sions, he  would  prove  that  no  divinity  ever  inter- 
posed in  the  affairs  of  the  earth,  either  as  creator  or 
director.  The  Romans  were  not,  as  we  have  had 
occasion  to  observe,  inclined  to  philosophic  pursuits, 
and  Lucretius  certainly  labored  with  all  the  force  of 
an  extraordinary  genius  to  lead  them  into  such 
studies.  He  brought  to  bear  upon  his  task  the 
power  of  sublime  and  graceful  verse,  and  it  has  been 
said  that  but  for  him  "  we  could  never  have  formed 
an  adequate  idea  of  the  strength  of  the  Latin  lan- 
guage. We  might  have  dwelt  with  pleasure  upon 
the  softness,  flexibility,  richness,  and  musical  tone 
of  that  vehicle  of  thought  which  could  represent 
with  full  effect  the  melancholy  tenderness  of  Tibul- 
lus,*  the  exquisite  ingenuity  of  Qvid,t  the  inimitable 

*  Albius  Tibullus  was  a  poet  of  singular  gentleness  and  amiability, 
who  wrote  verses  of  exquisite  finish,  gracefully  telling  the  story  of  his 
worldly  misfortunes  and  expressing  the  fluctuations  that  marked  his 
indulgence  in  the  tender  passion,  in  which  his  experience  was  extensive 
and  his  record  real.  He  was  a  warm  friend  of  Horace. 

f  Qw«t-(Publius  Ovidius  Naso)  was  born  March  20,  B.C.  43,  and  did 
not  compose  his  first  work,  The  Art  of  Love  (Ars  Amatoria),  until 


OVID  AND   SALLUST.  305 

felicity  and  taste  of  Horace,  the  gentleness  and  high 
spirit  of  Virgil,  and  the  vehement  declamation  of 
Juvenal,  but,  had  the  verses  of  Lucretius  perished, 
we  should  never  have  known  that  it  could  give 
utterance  to  the  grandest  conceptions  with  all  that 
sustained  majesty  and  harmonious  swell  in  which  the 
Grecian  Muse  rolls  forth  her  loftiest  outpourings." 
'••>  Caius  Sallustius  Crispus  ($alin§t)  was  born  the 
year  that  Marius  died  (B.C.  86)  of  a  plebeian  family, 
and  during  the  civil  wars  was  a  partisan  of  Caesar, 
whom  he  accompanied  to  Africa,  after  having  brought 
to  him  the  news  of  the  mutiny  of  his  troops  in  Cam- 
pania (B.C.  46).*  Left  as  governor,  Sallust  seems  to 
have  pursued  the  methods  common  to  that  class,  for 
he  became  immensely  rich.  Upon  his  return  from 
Africa,  he  retired  to  an  extensive  estate  on  the 
Quirinal  Hill,  and  lived  through  the  direful  days 
which  followed  the  death  of  Caesar.  He  died  in  the 
year  34  B.C.,  his  last  years  being  devoted  to  dilligent 
pursuits  of  literature.  His  two  works  are  Catilina, 
a  history  of  the  suppression  of  the  conspiracy  of 
Catiline,  and  Jugurtha,  a  history  of  the  war  against 
Jugurtha,  in  both  of  which  he  took  great  pains  with 
his  style.  As  he  witnessed  many  of  the  events  he 

he  was  more  than  fifty  years  of  age.     He  wrote  subsequently  The 
Metajnaoiphoses,  in  fifteen   books  ;    The   Fasti,   containing  accounts 
of   the    Roman   festivals;    and   the    Elegies,    composed    during   his 
banishment  to  a  town  on  the  Euxine,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Danulw, 
where  he  died,  A.D.  18.     Niebuhr  places  him  after  Catullus  the  most 
poetical  among  the  Roman  poets,  and  ranks  him  first  for  facility, 
did  not  direct  his  genius  by  a  sound  judgment,  and  has  the  unenvia 
fame  of  having  been  the  first  to  depart  from  the  canons  of  correct 
Greek  taste. 
*  See  page  245. 


306      THE  ROMAN  READING  AND  WRITING. 

described,  his  books  have  a  great  value  to  the  student 
of  the  periods.  Roman  writers  asserted  that  he  imi- 
tated the  style  of  Thucydides,  but  there  is  an  air  of 
artificiality  about  his  work  which  he  did  not  have 
the  skill  to  conceal.  He  has  the  honor  of  being  the 
first  Roman  to  write  history,  as  distinguished  from 
mere  annals. 

Livjr  (Titus  Livius)  was  born  in  the  year  of  Caesar's 
first  consulship  (B.C.  59),  at  Patavium  (Padua),  and 
died  A.D.  17.  His  writings,  like  those  of  Ovid,  come 
therefore  rather  into  the  period  of  the  empire.  His 
great  work  is  the  History  of  Rome,  which  he  modest- 
ly called  simply  Annales.  Little  is  known  of  his  life, 
but  he  was  of  very  high  repute  as  a  writer  in  his  own 
day,  for  it  is  said  by  Pliny  that  a  Spaniard  travelled 
all  the  way  from  his  distant  home  merely  to  see  him, 
and  as  soon  as  his  desire  had  been  accomplished,  re- 
turned. Livy's  history  comprised  one  hundred  and 
forty-two  books,  of  which  thirty-five  only  are  extant, 
though  with  the  exception  of  two  of  the  missing 
books  valuable  epitomes  are  preserved.  Though 
wanting  many  of  the  traits  of  the  historian,  and 
though  he  was  of  course  incapable  of  looking  at 
history  with  the  modern  philosophic  spirit,  Livy  was 
honest  and  candid,  and  possessed  a  wonderful  com- 
mand of  his  native  language.  His  work  enjoyed  an 
unbounded  popularity,  not  entirely  to  be  accounted 
for  by  the  fascinations  of  his  theme.  He  realized 
his  desire  to  present  a  clear  and  probable  narrative, 
and  no  history  of  Rome  can  now  be  written  without 
constant  reference  to  his  pages. 

(Quintus  Horatius  Flaccus)  was  born  on 


HORACE.  307 

the  river  Aufidus,  in  the  year  65  B.C.,  and  was  son  of 
a  freeman  who  seems  to  have  been  a  publican  or  col- 
lector of  taxes.  At  about  the  age  of  twelve,  after 
having  attended  the  local  school  at  Venusia,  to 
which  the  children  of  the  rural  aristocracy  resorted, 
he  was  taken  to  Rome,  where  he  enjoyed  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  best  means  of  education.  He  studied 
Livius  Andronicus,  and  Homer,  and  was  flogged 
with  care  by  at  least  one  of  his  masters.  He  was 
accompanied  at  the  capital  by  his  father,  of  whom 
he  always  speaks  with  great  respect,  and  because  he 
mingled  with  boys  of  high  rank,  was  well  dressed  and 
attended  by  slaves.  The  gentle  watchfulness  of  the 
father  guarded  Horace  from  all  the  temptations  of 
city  life,  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  he  went  to 
Athens,  as  most  well-educated  Romans  were  obliged 
to,  and  studied  in  the  academic  groves,  though  for  a 
while  he  was  swept  away  by  the  youthful  desire  to 
acquire  military  renown  under  Brutus,  who  came 
there  after  the  murder  of  Caesar.  Like  the  others  of 
the  republican  army,  he  fled  from  the  field  of  Philippi, 
and  found  his  military  ardor  thoroughly  cooled.  He 
thenceforth  devoted  himself  to  letters.  Returning  to 
Rome,  he  attracted  notice  by  his  verses,  and  became 
a  friend  of  Maecenas  and  Virgil,  the  former  of  whom 
bestowed  upon  him  a  farm  sufficient  to  sustain  him. 
His  life  thereafter  was  passed  in  frequent  interchange 
of  town  and  country  residence,  a  circumstance  which 
is  reflected  with  charming  grace  in  his  verses, 
rural  home  is  described  in  his  epistles.  It  was  not 
extensive,  but  was  pleasant,  and  he  enjoyed  it  to  the 
utmost.  His  poetry  is  deficient  in  the  highest  prop- 


308        THE  ROMAN  READING  AND   WRITING. 

erties  of  verse,  but  as  the  fresh  utterances  of  a  man 
of  the  world  who  was  possessed  of  quick  observation 
and  strong  common-sense,  and  who  was  honest  and 
bold,  they  have  always  charmed  their  readers.  The 
Odes  of  Horace  are  unrivalled  for  their  grace  and 
felicitous  language,  but  express  no  great  depth  of 
feeling.  His  Satires  do  not  originate  from  moral  in- 
dignation, but  the  writer  playfully  shoots  folly  as  it 
flies,  and  exhibits  a  wonderful  keenness  of  observa- 
tion of  the  ways  of  men  in  the  world.  His  Epistles 
are  his  most  perfect  work,  and  are,  indeed,  among 
the  most  original  and  polished  forms  of  Roman 
verse.  His  Art  of  Poetry  is  not  a  complete  theory 
of  poetic  art,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  written 
simply  to  suggest  the  difficulties  to  be  met  on  the 
way  to  perfection  by  a  versifier  destitute  of  the 
poetic  genius.  The  works  of  Horace  were  immedi- 
ately popular,  and  in  the  next  generation  became 
text-books  in  the  schools. 

Cornelius  Nepos  was  a  historical  writer  of  whose 
life  almost  no  particulars  have  come  down  to  us,  ex- 
cept that  he  was  a  friend  of  Cicero,  Catullus,  and 
probably  of  other  men  of  letters  who  lived  at  the 
end  of  the  republic.  The  works  that  he  is  known  to 
have  written  are  all  lost,  and  that  which  goes  under 
his  name,  The  Biographies  of  Distinguished  Com- 
manders (Excellentium  Imperatorum  Vitce\  seems  to 
be  an  abridgment  made  some  centuries  after  his 
death,  and  tedious  discussions  have  been  had  regard- 
ing its  authorship.  The  lives  are,  however,  valuable 
for  their  pure  Latinity,  and  interesting  for  the  lofty 
tone  in  which  the  greatness  of  the  Roman  people 


VIRGIL  AND  HIS  WORKS.  309 

is  celebrated.  The  life  of  Atticus,  the  friend  and 
correspondent  of  Cicero,  is  the  one  of  the  biographies 
regarding  which  the  doubts  have  been  least.  The 
work  is  still  a  favorite  school-book  and  has  been  pub- 
lished in  innumerable  editions. 

This  brief  list  of  celebrated  writers  whose  works 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  reading  public  of  Rome 
during  the  time  of  the  republic,  must  be  closed  with 
reference  to  Virgil  (Publius  Vergilius  Maro),  the 
writer  who  stands  at  the  head  of  the  literature  of 
Rome,  sharing  his  pre-eminence  only  with  his 
younger  friend,  Horace.  Born  on  his  father's  small 
estate  near  Mantua,  Virgil  studied  Greek  at  Naples, 
and  other  branches,  probably,  at  Rome,  where  in 
time  he  became  the  friend  of  the  munificent  patron 
of  letters,  Maecenas,  with  whom  we  have  already 
seen  him  on  the  noted  journey  to  Brundu- 
sium.  It  was  at  the  instigation  of  Maecenas  that 
Virgil  wrote  his  most  finished  work,  the  agricultural 
poem  entitled  Georgica,  which  was  completed  after 
the  battle  of  Actium  (B.C.  31),  when  Augustus  was 
in  the  East.  It  had  been  preceded  by  ten  brief  poems 
called  Bucolics  (Bucolica,  Greek,  boukolos,  a  cow- 
herd), noteworthy  for  their  smooth  versification  and 
many  natural  touches,  though  they  have  only  the 
form  and  coloring  of  the  true  pastoral  poem.  The 
yEneid,  which  was  begun  about  30  B.C.,  occupied 
eleven  years  in  composition,  and  yet  lacked  the  fin- 
ishing touches  when  the  poet  was  on  his  death-bed. 
His  death  occurred  September  22,  B.C.  19,  at  Brun- 
dusium,  to  which  place  he  had  come  from  Greece, 
where  he  tad  been  in  company  with  Augustus,  and 


310       THE  ROMAN  READING  AND  WRITING. 

he  was  buried  between  the  first  and  second  mile- 
stones on  the  road  from  Naples  to  Puteoli,  where  a 
monument  is  still  shown  as  his. 

Though  always  a  sufferer  from  poor  health,  and 
therefore  debarred  from  entering  upon  an  oratorical 
or  a  military  career,  Virgil  was  exceptionally  fortu- 
nate in  his  friendships  and  enjoyed  extraordinary 
patronage  which  enabled  him  to  cultivate  literature 
to  the  greatest  advantage.  He  was  fortunate,  too, 
in  his  fame,  for  he  was  a  favorite  when  he  lived  no 
less  than  after  his  death.  Before  the  end  of 
his  own  generation  his  works  were  introduced  as 
text-books  into  Roman  schools ;  during  the  Middle 
Age  he  was  the  great  poet  whom  it  was  heresy  not 
to  admire ;  Dante  owned  him  as  a  master  and  a 
model ;  and  the  people  finally  embalmed  him  in 
their  folk-lore  as  a  mysterious  conjurer  and  necro- 
mancer. His  sEneid,  written  in  imitation  of  the 
great  Greek  poem  on  the  fall  of  Troy,  is  a  patriotic 
epic,  tracing  the  wanderings,  the  struggles,  and  the 
death  of  y£neas,  and  vaunting  the  glories  of  Rome 
and  the  greatness  of  the  royal  house  of  the  emperor. 

Thus,  through  long  ages  the  Roman  wrote,  and 
thus  he  was  furnished  with  books  to  read.  For  cen- 
turies he  had  no  literature  excepting  those  rude  bal- 
lads in  which  the  books  of  all  countries  have  begun, 
and  all  trace  of  them  has  passed  away.  When  at 
last,  after  the  conquest  of  the  Greek  cities  in  South- 
ern Italy,  the  Tarentine  Andronicus  began  to  imitate 
the  epics  of  his  native  language  in  that  of  his  adop- 
tion, the  progress  was  still  quite  slow  among  a  people 
who  argued  with  the  sword  and  saw  little  to  interest 


THE  PA  TRON  OF  LITER  A  TURE.  3 1 1 

them  in  the  fruit  of  the  brain.  As  the  republic  tot- 
ters to  its  fall,  however,  the  cultivators  of  this  field 
increase,  and  we  must  suppose  that  readers  also  were 
multiplied.  At  that  time  and  during  the  early  years 
of  the  empire,  a  Maecenas  surrounded  himself  with 
authors  and  stimulated  them  to  put  forth  all  their 
vigor  in  the  effort  to  create  a  native  literature. 

On  the  Esquiline  Hill  there  was  a  spot  of  ground 
that  had  been  a  place  of  burial  for  the  lower  orders. 
This  the  hypochondriacal  invalid  Maecenas  bought, 
and  there  he  laid  out  a  garden  and  erected  a  lofty 
house  surmounted  by  a  tower  commanding  a  view  of 
the  city  and  vicinity.  Effeminate  and  addicted  to 
every  sort  of  luxury,  Maecenas  calmed  his  sometimes 
excited  nerves  by  the  sweet  sound  of  distant  sym- 
phonies, gratified  himself  by  comforting  baths, 
adorned  his  clothing  with  expensive  gems,  tickled 
his  palate  with  dainty  confections  of  the  cook,  and 
regaled  himself  with  the  loftier  delights  afforded  by 
the  companionship  of  the  wits  and  virtuosi  of  the 
capital.  Magnificent  was  the  patronage  that  he  dis- 
pensed among  the  men  of  letters  ;  and  that  he  was 
no  mean  critic,  his  choice  of  authors  seems  to  prove. 
They  were  the  greatest  geniuses  and  most  learned 
men  of  the  day.  At  his  table  sat  Virgil,  Horace, 
and  Propertius,  besides  many  others,  and  his  name 
has  ever  since  been  proverbial  for  the  patron  of  let- 
ters. No  wealthy  public  man  has  since  arisen  who 
could  rival  him  in  this  respect. 


XX. 

THE  ROMAN  REPUBLICANS  SERIOUS  AND  GAY. 

IT  is  easier  to  think  of  the  old  Roman  republicans 
as  serious  than  gay,  when  we  remember  that  they 
considered  that  their  very  commonwealth  was  estab- 
lished upon  the  will  of  the  gods,  and  that  no  acts — 
at  least  no  public  acts — could  properly  be  performed 
without  consulting  those  spiritual  beings,  which  their 
imagination  pictured  as  presiding  over  the  hearth, 
the  farm,  the  forum — as  swarming  throughout  every 
department  of  nature.  The  first  stone  was  not  laid 
at  the  foundation  of  the  city  until  Romulus  and 
Remus  had  gazed  up  into  the  heavens,  so  mysterious 
and  so  beautiful,  and  had  obtained,  as  they  thought, 
some  indication  of  the  fittest  place  where  they  might 
dig  and  build.  The  she-wolf  that  nurtured  the  twins 
was  elevated  into  a  divinity  with  the  name  Lupa,  or 
Luperca  (lupus,  a  wolf),  and  was  made  the  wife  of  a 
god  who  was  called  Lupercus,  and  worshipped  as 
the  protector  of  sheep  against  their  enemies,  and  as 
the  god  of  fertility.  On  the  fifteenth  of  February, 
when  in  that  warm  clime  spring  was  beginning  to 
open  the  buds,  the  shepherds  celebrated  a  feast  in 
honor  of  Lupercus.  Its  ceremonies,  in  some  part 
symbolic  of  purification,  were  rude  and  almost  say 


THE  FIRST  TEMPLES.  313 

age,  proving  that  they  originated  in  remote  antiquity, 
but  they  continued  at  least  down  to  the  end  of  the 
period  we  have  considered,  and  the  powerful  Marc 
Antony  did  not  disdain  to  clothe  himself  in  a  wolf- 
skin and  run  almost  naked  through  the  crowded 
streets  of  the  capital  the  month  before  his  friend 
Julius  Caesar  was  murdered.*  It  was  a  fitting  festi- 
val for  the  month  of  which  the  name  was  derived 
from  that  of  the  god  of  purification  (februare,  to 
purify). 

It  was  at  the  foot  of  a  fig-tree  that  Romulus  and 
Remus  were  fabled  to  have  been  found  by  Faustulus, 
and  that  tree  was  always  looked  upon  with  special 
veneration,  though  whenever  the  Roman  walked 
through  the  woods  he  felt  that  he  was  surrounded 
by  the  world  of  gods,  and  that  such  a  leafy  shade 
was  a  proper  place  to  consecrate  as  a  temple.  A 
temple  was  not  an  edifice  in  those  simple  days,  but 
merely  a  place  separated  and  set  apart  to  religious 
uses  by  a  solemn  act  of  dedication.  When  thet 
augur  moved  his  wand  aloft  and  designated  the 
portion  of  the  heavens  in  which  he  was  to  make  his 
observations,  he  called  the  circumscribed  area  of  the 
ethereal  blue  a  temple,  and  when  the  mediaeval 
astrologer  did  the  same,  he  named  the  space  a 
"  house."  On  the  Roman  temple  an  altar  was 
set  up,  and  there,  perhaps  beneath  the  spreading 
branches  of  a  royal  oak,  sacred  to  Jupiter,  the  king 
of  the  gods,  or  of  an  olive,  sacred  to  Minerva,  the 
maiden  goddess,  impersonation  of  ideas,  who  shared 
with  him  and  his  queen  the  highest  place  among  the 

*  .See  page  248, 


3 14  THE  ROMANS  SERIOUS  AND   GAY. 

Capitoline  deities,  prayers  and  praises  and  sacrifices 
were  offered. 

When  the  year  opened,  the  Roman  celebrated  the 
fact  by  solemnizing  in  its  first  month,  March,  the 
festivity  of  the  father  of  the  Roman  people  by  Rhea 
Silvia,  the  god  who  stood  next  to  Jupiter;  who,  a.s 
Mars  Silvanus,  watched  over  the  fields  and  the 
cattle,  and,  as  Mars  Gradivus  (marching),  delighted 
in  bloody  war,  and  was  a  fitting  divinity  to  be  ap- 
pealed to  by  Romulus  as  he  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  city.*  As  spring  progressed,  sacrifices  were 
offered  to  Tellus,  the  nourishing  earth  ;  to  Ceres,  the 
Greek  goddess  Demeter,  introduced  from  Sicily  B.C. 
496,  to  avert  a  famine,  whose  character  did  not, 
however,  differ  much  from  that  of  Tellus ;  and  to 
Pales,  a  god  of  the  flocks.  At  the  same  inspiring 
season  another  feast  was  observed  in  honor  of 'the 
vines  and  vats,  when  the  wine  of  the  previous  season 
was  opened  and  tasted.f 

In  like  manner  after  the  harvest,  there  were  festi- 
vals in  honor  of  Ops,  goddess  of  plenty,  wife  of  that 
old  king  of  the  golden  age,  Saturnus,  introducer  of 
social  order  and  god  of  sowing,  source  of  wealth  and 
plenty.  The  festival  of  Saturnus  himself  occurred  on 
December  i/th,  and  was  a  barbarous  and  joyous 
harvest-home,  a  time  of  absolute  relaxation  and  un- 
restrained merriment,  when  distinctions  of  rank  were 

*  See  page  19. 

f  This  was  the  Vinalia  urbana  (urbs,  a  city),  but  there  was  another 
festival  celebrated  August  igth,  when  the  vintage  began,  known  as 
the  Vinalia  rustica,  when  lambs  were  sacrificed  to  Jupiter.  While 
the  flesh  was  still  on  the  altar,  the  priest  broke  a  cluster  pf  grapes  from 
a  vine,  and  thus  actually  opened  the  wine  harvest. 


fESTIVALS  OF  THE  FJ RESIDE.  31$ 

forgotten,  and  crowds  thronged  the  streets  crying,  Io 
Saturnalia  !  even  slaves  wearing  the  pilcus  or  skull- 
cap, emblem  of  liberty,  and  all  throwing  off  the 
dignified  toga  for  the  easy  and  comfortable  synthesis, 
perhaps  a  sort  of  tunic. 

Other  festivals  were  devoted  to  Vulcanus,  god 
of  fire,  without  whose  help  the  handicraftsmen 
thought  they  could  not  carry  on  their  work;  and 
Neptunus,  god  of  the  ocean  and  the  sea,  to  whom 
sailors  addressed  their  prayers,  and  to  whom  com- 
manders going  out  with  fleets  offered  oblations. 
Family  life  was  not  likely  to  be  forgotten  by  a  peo- 
ple among  whom  the  father  was  the  first  priest,  and 
accordingly  we  find  that  every  house  was  in  a  certain 
sense  a  temple  of  Vesta,  the  goddess  of  the  fireside, 
and  that  as  of  old  time  the  family  assembled  in  the 
atrium  around  the  hearth,  to  partake  of  their  com- 
mon meal,  the  renewal  of  the  family  bond  of  union 
was  in  later  days  accompanied  with  acts  of  worship 
of  Vesta,  whose  actual  temple  was  only  an  enlarge- 
ment of  the  fireside,  uniting  all  the  citizens  of  the 
state  into  a  single  large  family.  In  her  shrine  there 
was  no  statue,  but  her  presence  was  represented  by 
the  eternal  fire  burning  upon  her  hearth,  a  fire  that 
^Eneas  was  fabled  to  have  brought  with  him  from 
old  Troy.  The  purifying  flames  stood  for  the  unsul- 
lied character  of  the  goddess,  which  was  also  be- 
tokened by  the  immaculate  maidens  who  kept  alive 
the  sacred  coals.  As  Vesta  was  remembered  at  every 
meal,  so  also  the  Lares  and  Penates,  divinities  of  the 
fireside,  were  worshipped,  for  there  was  a  purification 
at  the  beginning  of  the  repast  and  a  Jibation  poured 


3l6  THE  ROMANS  SERIOUS  AND   GAY. 

upon  the  table  or  the  hearth  in  their  honor  at  its 
close.  When  one  went  abroad  he  prayed  to  the 
Penates  for  a  safe  return,  and  when  he  came  back, 
he  hung  his  armor  and  his  staff  beside  their  images, 
and  gave  them  thanks.  In  every  sorrow  and  in  every 
joy  the  indefinite  divinities  that  went  under  these 
names  were  called  upon  for  sympathy  or  help. 

In  the  month  of  June  the  mothers  celebrated  a 
feast  called  Matralia,  to  impress  upon  themselves 
their  duties  towards  children ;  and  at  another  they 
brought  to  mind  the  good  deeds  of  the  Sabine 
women  in  keeping  their  husbands  and  fathers  from 
war.*  This  was  the  Matronalia,  and  the  epigram- 
matist Martial,  who  lived  during  the  first  century  of 
our  era,  called  it  the  Women's  Saturnalia,  on  account 
of  its  permitted  relaxation  of  manners.  At  that 
time  husbands  gave  presents  to  their  wives,  lovers  to 
their  sweethearts,  and  mistresses  feasted  their  maids. 

The  Lemuria  was  a  family  service  that  the  father 
celebrated  on  the  ninth,  eleventh,  and  thirteenth  of 
May,  when  the  ghosts  of  the  departed  were  propiti- 
ated. It  was  thought  that  these  spirits  were  wont 
to  return  to  the  scenes  of  their  earthly  lives  to  injure 
those  who  were  still  wrestling  with  the  severe  reali- 
ties of  time,  and  specially  did  they  come  up  during 
the  darkness  of  night.  Therefore  it  was  that  at 
midnight  the  father  rose  and  went  forth  with  caba- 
listic signs,  skilfully  adapted  to  keep  the  spectres  at 
a  distance.  After  thrice  washing  his  hands  in  pure 
spring  water,  he  turned  around  and  took  certain 
black  beans  into  his  mouth,  and  then  threw  them 

*  See  page  2$, 


THE  ROMAN  DEITIES.  3 1  / 

behind  him  for  the  ghosts  to  pick  up.  The  goodman 
then  uttered  other  mystic  expressions  without  risk- 
ing any  looks  towards  the  supposed  sprites,  after 
which  he  washed  his  hands,  and  beat  some  brazen 
basins,  and  nine  times  cried  aloud  :  "  Begone,  ye 
spectres  of  the  house  !  "  Then  could  he  look  around, 
for  the  ghosts  were  harmless. 

Thus  the  Roman  forefathers  worshipped  personal 
gods,  but  they  did  not,  in  the  early  times,  follow  the 
example  of  the  imaginative  Greeks,  and  represent 
them  as  possessing  passions  like  themselves,  nor  did 
they  erect  them  into  families  and  write  out  their 
lines  of  descent,  or  create  a  mythology  filled  with 
stories  of  their  acts  good  and  bad.  The  gods  were 
spiritual  beings,  but  the  religion  was  not  a  spiritual 
life,  nor  did  it  have  much  connection  with  morality. 
It  was  mainly  based  on  the  enjoyment  of  earthly 
pleasures.  If  the  ceremonious  duties  were  done,  the 
demands  of  Roman  religion  were  satisfied.  It  was  a 
hard  and  narrow  faith,  but  it  seemed  to  tend  towards 
bringing  earthly  guilt  and  punishment  into  relation 
with  its  divinities,  and  it  contained  the  idea  of  sub- 
stitution,  as  is  clearly  seen  in  the  stories  of  Curtius, 
Decius  Mus,  and  others.* 

As  time  passed  on  the  rites  and  ceremonies  in- 
creased in  number  and  intricacy,  and  it  became 
necessary  to  have  special  orders  to  attend  to  their 
observance,  for  the  fathers  of  the  families  were  not 
able  to  give  their  attention  to  the  matter  sufficiently. 

*  "  When  the  gods  of  the  community  were  angry,  and  nobody  ce 
be  laid  hold  of  as  definitely  guilty,  they  might  be  appease*, 
voluntarily  gave  himself  up."— MOMMSEN,  Book  I.,  chapter  12. 


3l8  THE  ROMANS  SERIOUS  AND   GAY. 

Thus  the  colleges  of  priests  naturally  grew  up  to  care 
for  the  national  religion,  the  most  ancient  of  them 
bearing  reference  to  Mars  the  killing  god.  They 
were  the  augurs  and  the  pontifices,  and  as  the 
religion  grew  more  and  more  formal  and  the  priests 
less  and  less  earnest,  the  observances  fell  into  dull 
and  insipid  performances,  in  which  no  one  was  inter- 
ested, and  in  time  public  service  became  not  only 
tedious,  but  costly,  penny  collections  made  from 
house  to  house  being  among  the  least  onerous  ex- 
pedients resorted  to  for  the  support  of  the  new 
grafts  on  the  tree  of  devotion. 

As  early  as  the  time  of  the  first  Punic  war,  a  consul 
was  bold  enough  to  jest  at  the  auspices  in  public. 
Superstitions  and  impostures  flourished,  the  astrology 
of  ancient  Chaldea  spread,  the  Oriental  ceremonies 
were  introduced  with  the  pomps  that  accompanied 
the  reception  of  the  unformed  boulder  which  the 
special  embassy  brought  from  Pessinus  when  the 
weary  war  with  Hannibal  had  rendered  any  source 
of  hope,  even  the  most  futile,  inspiring.*  Then  the 
abominable  worship  of  Bacchus  came  in,  and  thous- 
ands were  corrupted  and  made  vicious  throughout 
Italy  before  the  authorities  were  able  to  put  a  stop 
to  the  midnight  orgies  and  the  crimes  that  daylight 
exposed. 

Cato  the  elder,  who  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  consulting  Chaldeans  or  magicians  of  any  sort, 
asked  how  it  were  possible  for  two  such  ministers  to 
meet  each  other  face  to  face  without  laughing  at 
their  own  duplicity  and  the  ridiculous  superstition  of 

*  B.C.  204.     See  page  153. 


EFFECTS  FROM   THUNDER-STORMS.          319 

the  people  they  deceived.*  Cato  was  very  much 
shocked  by  the  preaching  of  three  Greek  philoso- 
phers :  Diogenes,  a  stoic  ;  Critolaus,  a  peripatetic ; 
and  Carneades,  an  academic,  who  visited  Rome  on  a 
political  mission,  B.  C.  155  ;  because  it  seemed  to 
him  that  they,  especially  the  last,  preached  a  doctrine 
that  confounded  justice  and  injustice,  a  system  of  ex- 
pediency, and  he  urged  successfully  that  they  should 
have  a  polite  permission  to  depart  with  all  speed. 
The  philosophers  were  dismissed,  but  it  was  impos- 
sible to  restrain  the  Roman  youth  who  had  listened 
to  the  addresses  of  the  strangers  with  an  avidity  all 
the  greater  because  their  utterances  had  been  found 
scandalous,  and  they  went  to  Athens,  or  Rhodes,  to 
hear  more  of  the  same  doctrine. 

Thus  in  time  the  simplicity  of  the  people  wascom- 
pletely  undermined,  and  while  they  became  more 
cosmopolitan  they  also  grew  more  lax.  They  used 
the  Greek  language,  and  employed  Greek  writers,  as 
we  have  seen,  to  make  their  books  for  them,  which, 
though  bearing  Greek  titles,  were  composed  in 
Latin.  The  public  men  performed  in  the  forenoon 
their  civil  and  religious  acts  ;  took  their  siestas  in  the 
middle  of  the  day;  exercised  in  the  Campus  Martius, 

*  It  had  been  in  early  times  customary  to  dismiss  a  political  gather- 
ing if  a  thunder-storm  came  up,  and  the  augurs  had  taken  advantage  of 
the  practice  to  increase  their  own  power  by  laying  down  an  occult  sys- 
tem of  celestial  omens  which  enabled  them  to  bring  any  such  meet- 
ing to  a  close  when  the  legislation  promised  to  thwart  their  plans. 
They  finally  reached  the  absurd  extreme  of  enacting  a  law,  by  th 
terms  of  which  a  popular  assembly  was  obliged  to  disperse,  if  it  should 
occur  to  a  higher  magistrate  merely  to  look  into  the  heavens  for  signs 
of  the  approach  of  such  a  storm.  The  power  of  the  priests  under  such 
a  law  was  immeasurable.  (See  pages  236  and  247). 


320  THE  ROMANS  SERIOUS  AND   GAY. 

swimming,  wrestling,  and  fencing,  in  the  afternoon ; 
enjoyed  the  delicacies  of  the  table  later,  listening 
to  singing  and  buffoonery  the  while,  and  were  thus 
prepared  to  seek  their  beds  when  the  sun  went  down. 
At  the  bath,  which  came  to  be  the  polite  resort  of 
pleasure -seekers,  all  was  holiday  •  the  toga  and  the 
foot-coverings  were  exchanged  for  a  light  Greek  dress- 
ing-gown, and  the  time  was  whiled  away  in  gossip, 
idle  talk,  lounging,  many  dippings  into  the  flowing 
waters,  and  music.  Pleasure  became  the  business  of 
life,  and  morality  was  relaxed  to  a  frightful  extent. 

When  we  consider  the  gay  moods  of  the  Roman 
people  we  turn  probably  first  to  childhood,  and  try  to 
imagine  how  the  little  ones  amused  themselves.  We 
find  that  the  girls  had  their  dolls,  some  of  which  have 
been  dug  out  of  ruins  of  the  ancient  buildings,  and 
that  the  boys  played  games  similar  to  those  that 
still  hold  dominion  over  the  young  English  or 
American  school-boy  at  play.  In  their  quieter 
moods  they  played  with  huckle-bones  taken  from 
sheep,  goats,  or  antelopes,  or  imitated  in  stone, 
metal,  ivory,  or  glass.  From  the  earliest  days  these 
were  used  chiefly  by  women  and  children,  who  used 
five  at  a  time,  which  they  threw  into  the  air  and 
then  tried  to  catch  on  the  back  of  the  hand,  their 
irregular  form  making  the  success  the  result  of  con- 
siderable skill.  The  bones  were  also  made  to  con- 
tribute to  a  variety  of  amusements  requiring  agility 
and  accuracy ;  but  after  a  while  the  element  of 
chance  was  introduced.  The  sides  were  marked 
with  different  values,  and  the  victor  was  he  who 
threw  the  highest  value,  fourteen,  the  numbers 


DRAUGHTS  AND  GAMBLING  GAMES.       321 

cast  being  each  different  from  the  rest.  This  throw 
obtained  at  a  symposium  or  drinking  party  caused  a 
person  to  be  appointed  king  of  the  feast. 

One  of  the  oldest  games  of  the  world  is  that 
called  by  the  Romans  little  marauders  (latrunculi), 
because  it  was  played  like  draughts  or  checkers, 
there  being  two  sets  of  "  men,"  white  and  red,  repre- 
senting opposed  soldiers,  and  the  aim  of  each  player 
being  to  gain  advantage  over  the  other,  as  soldiers 
do  in  a  combat.  This  game  is  as  old  as  Homer,  and 
is  represented  in  Egyptian  tombs,  which  are  of  much 
greater  antiquity  than  any  Grecian  monuments.  In 
this  game,  too,  skill  was  all  that  was  needed  at  first, 
but  in  time  spice  was  given  by  the  addition  of 
chance,  and  dice  (tessera,  a  die)  were  used  as  in  back- 
gammon ;  but  gambling  was  deemed  disreputable, 
and  was  forbidden  during  the  republic,  except  at  the 
time  of  the  Saturnalia,  though  both  Greeks  and  Ro- 
mans permitted  aged  men  to  amuse  themselves  in 
that  way.* 

The  games  of  the  Romans  range  from  the  inno- 
cent tossing  of  huckle-bones  to  the  frightful  scenes 
of  the  gladiatorial  show.  Some  were  celebrated  in 
the  open  air,  and  others  within  the  enclosures  of  the 
circus  or  the  amphitheatre.  Some  were  gay,  festive, 
and  abandoned,  and  others  were  serious  and  tragic. 
Some  were  said  to  have  been  instituted  in  the  ear- 
liest days  by  Romulus,  ServiusTullius,  or  Tarquinius 
Priscus,  and  others  were  imported  from  abroad  or 

*  A  gambler  was  called  altator,  and  sometimes  his  implement  was 
spoken  of  as  aha,  which  meant  literally  gaming.     When  Suetonius 
makes  Caesar  say,  before  crossing  the  Rubicon,  "  The  die  is  cast. 
uses  the  words  Jacta  alea  est  I 


322  THE  ROMANS  SERIOUS  AND   GAY. 

grew  up  naturally  as  the  nation  progressed  in  expe- 
rience or  in  acquaintance  with  foreign  peoples.  The 
great  increase  of  games  and  festivals  and  their  enor- 
mous cost  were  signs  of  approaching  trouble  for  the 
republic,  and  foretold  the  terrible  days  of  the  empire, 
when  the  rabblement  of  the  capital,  accustomed  to 
be  amused  and  fed  by  their  despotic  and  corrupt 
rulers,  should  cry  in  the  streets  :  "  Give  us  bread  for 
nothing  and  games  forever !  "  It  was  gradually  edu- 
cating the  populace  to  think  of  nothing  but  enjoy- 
ment and  to  abhor  honest  labor,  and  we  can  imagine 
the  corruption  that  must  have  been  brought  into 
politics  when  honors  were  so  expensive  that  a  re- 
spectable gladiatorical  show  cost  more  than  thirty- 
five  thousand  dollars  (£7,200).  If  money  for  such 
purposes  could  not  be  obtained  by  honest  means,  the 
nobles,  who  lived  on  popular  applause,  would  seek 
to  force  it  from  poor  citizens  of  the  colonies  or  win 
it  by  intrigue  at  home. 

There  were  impressive  games  celebrated  from  the 
fourth  to  the  twelfth  of  September,  called  the  great 
games  of  the  Roman  Circus,  but  it  is  a  disputed  point 
what  divinities  they  were  in  honor  of.  Jupiter  was 
thought  surely  to  be  one,  and  Consus  another,  by 
those  who  believed  the  legends  asserting  that  they 
were  a  continuation  of  those  established  by  Romulus 
when  he  wished  to  get  wives  from  the  Sabines. 
Others  think  that  Tarquinius  Priscus,  after  a  victory 
over  the  Latins,  commemorated  his  success  by  games 
in  a  valley  between  the  Aventine  and  the  Palatine 
hills,  where  the  spectators  stood  about  to  look  on, 
or  occupied  stages  that  they  erected  for  their  sepa- 


RACING  Iff   THE   CIRCUS.  323 

rate  use.  The  racers  went  around  in  a  circuit,  and 
it  is  perhaps  on  this  account  that  the  course  and  its 
scaffolds  was  called  the  circus  (circum,  round  about). 
The  course  was  long,  and  about  it  the  seats  of  the 
spectators  were  in  after  times  arranged  in  tiers. 
A  division,  called  the  spina  (spine),  was  built 
through  the  central  enclosure,  separated  the  horses 
running  in  one  direction  from  those  going  in  the 
other. 

A  variety  of  different  games  were  celebrated  in 
the  circus.  The  races  may  be  mentioned  first. 
Sometimes  two  chariots,  drawn  by  two  horses  or 
four  each  (the  biga  or  the  quadriga),  entered  for  the 
trial  of  speed.  Each  had  two  horsemen,  one  of 
whom,  standing  in  the  car  with  the  reins  behind  his 
back  to  enable  him  to  throw  his  entire  weight  on 
them,  drove,  while  the  other  urged  the  beasts  for- 
ward, cleared  the  way,  or  assisted  in  managing  the 
reins.  Before  the  race  lists  of  the  horses  were 
handed  about  and  bets  made  on  them,  the  utmost 
enthusiasm  being  excited,  and  the  factions  sometimes 
even  coming  to  blows  and  blood.  The  time  having 
arrived,  the  horses  were  brought  from  stalls  at  the 
end  of  the  course,  and  ranged  in  line,  a  trumpet 
sounded,  or  a  handkerchief  was  dropped,  and  the 
drivers  and  animals  put  forth  every  exertion  to  win 
the  prize.  Seven  times  they  whirled  around  the 
course,  the  applause  of  the  excited  spectators  con- 
stantly sounding  in  their  ears.  Now  and  then  a  biga 
would  be  overturned,  or  a  driver,  unable  to  control 
his  fiery  steeds,  would  be  thrown  to  the  ground,  and 
not  quick  enough  to  cut  the  reins  that  encircled  him 


THE  AMPHITHEATRE.  325 

with  the  bill-hook  that  he  carried  for  the  purpose, 

would  be  dragged  to  his  death.      Such  an  accident 

would  not  stop  the  onrushing  of  the  other  compet- 

\  itors,  and  at  last  the  victor  would  step  from  his  car, 

,  iiount  the  spina,  and  receive  the  sum  of  money  that 

had  been  offered  as  the  prize. 

Another  game  wasythe  Play  of  Troy,  fabled  to 
have-been  invented  by  ^Eneas,  in  which  young  men 
of  rank  on  horses  performed  a  sham  fight.  On 
another  .occasion  the  circus  would  be  turned  into  a 
camp,  and  equestrians  and  infantry  would  give  a 
realistic  exhibition  of  battle.  Again,  there  would  be 
athletic  games,  running,  boxing,  wrestling,  throwing 
the  discus  or  the  spear,  and  other  exercises  testing 
the  entire  physical  system  with  much  thorough- 
ness. One  day  tlje  amphitheatre  would  be  filled 
with  huge  trees,  and  savage  animals  would  be 
brought  to  be  hunted  down  by  criminals,  captives, 
or  men  especially  trained  for  the  desperate  work,  who 
made  it  their  profession. 

For  the  purposes  of  these  combats  the  circus  was 
found  not  to  be  the  best,  and  the  amphitheatre  was 
invented  by  Curio  for  the  celebration  of  his  father's 
funeral  games.  It  differed  from  a  theatre  in  per- 
mitting the  audience  to  see  on  both  sides  (Greek 
amphi,  both),  but  the  distinctive  name  was  first 
applied  to  a  structure  built  by  Cxsar,  B.C.  46.  The 
Flavian  Amphitheatre,  better  known  as  the  Colos- 
seum, of  which  the  ruins  now  stand  in  Rome,  was 
the  culmination  of  this  sort  of  building,  and  affords 
a  good  idea  of  the  general  arrangement  of  those  that 
were  not  so  grand.  That  of  Caesar  was,  however,  of 


J26  THE  ROMANS  SERIOUS  AND   GAY. 

wood,  which  material  was  used  in  constructing 
theatres  also ;  the  first  one  of  stone  was  not  erected 
until  30  B.C.,  when  Augustus  was  consul.* 

Variety  was  given  to  the  exhibitions  of  the  amphi- 
theatre by  introducing  sufficient  water  to  float  ships, 
and  by  causing  the  same  wretched  class  that  fought 
the  wild  beasts  to  represent  two  rival  nations,  and  to 
fight  until  one  party  was  actually  killed,  unless  pre- 
served by  the  clemency  of  the  ruler. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  all  these  exhibitions 
were  known  in  early  times,  for,  in  reality,  they  were 
mostly  the  fruit  of  the  increased  love  of  pleasure  that 
characterized  the  close  of  the  period  of  the  republic, 
and  reached  their  greatest  extravagance  only  under 
the  emperors. 

The  departure  of  a  Roman  from  this  world  was 
considered  an  event  of  great  importance,  and  was 
attended  by  peculiar  ceremonies,  some  of  which 
have  been  imitated  in  later  times.  At  the  solemn 
moment  the  nearest  relative  present  tried'to  catch  in 
his  mouth  the  last  expiring  breath,  and  as  soon  as 
life  had  passed  away,  he  called  out  the  name  of  the 
departed  and  exclaimed  "  Vale  !  "  (farewell).  The 
ring  had  been  previously  taken  from  the  finger,  and 
now  the  body  was  washed  and  anointed,  by  under- 
takers, who  had  been  called  from  a  place  near  the 
temple  of  Venus  Libitina,  where  the  names  of  all 

*  History  gives  an  account  of  one  edifice  of  this  kind  made  of 
wood  that  fell  down  owing  to  imperfect  construction,  killing  many 
thousand  spectators,  and  of  another  that  was  destroyed  by  fire.  Pom- 
pey's  theatre  of  stone,  built  B.C.  55,  has  already  been  mentioned 
(page  231). 


FUNERAL   CEREMONIES.  327 

who  died  were  registered,  and  where  articles  needed 
for  funerals  were  hired  and  sold.* 

A  small  coin  was  placed  in  the  mouth  of  the 
deceased  to  pay  Charon  the  ferryman  who  was  to 
take  it  across  the  rivers  of  the  lower  world,  the  body 
was  laid  out  in  the  vestibule,  with  its  feet  toward 
the  door,  wearing  the  simple  toga,  in  the  case  of  an 
ordinary  citizen,  or  the  toga  pratexta  in  case  of  a 
magistrate,  and  flowers  and  leaves  were  used  for 
decorations  as  they  are  at  present.  If  the  deceased 
had  received  a  crown  for  any  act  of  heroism  in  life, 
it  was  placed  upon  his  head  at  death.  We  have 
already  seen  that  cypress  was  put  at  the  door  to 
express  to  the  passer-by  the  bereavement  of  the 
dwellers  in  the  house.  If  the  person  had  been  of 
importance,  the  funeral  was  public,  and  probably  it 
would  be  found  that  he  had  left  money  for  the  pur- 
pose ;  but  if  he  had  omitted  to  do  that,  the  expenses 
of  burial  would  devolve  on  those  who  were  to  inherit 
his  property.  These  charges  in  case  of  a  poor  per- 
son would  be  but  slight, the  funeral  being  celebrated; 
as  in  the  olden  times  of  the  republic,  at  night  and 
'in  a  very  modest  style. 

The  master  of  the  funeral,  as  he  was  called, 
attended  by  lictors  dressed  in  black,  directed  the 
ceremonies  in  the  case  of  a  person  of  importance. 
On  the  eighth  day  the  body  would  be  taken  to  its 
cremation  or  burial,  accompanied  by  persons  wearing 
masks,  representing  the  ancestors  of  the  deceased 

*  Libitina  was   an   ancient   Italian   divinity  about  whom   li 
known.     She  has  been  identified  with  both  Proserpina  (the  infernal 
goddess  of  death  and  queen  of  the  domain  of  Pluto  her  husband)  and 
with  Venus. 


328  THE  ROMANS  SERIOUS  AND   GA  Y. 

and  dressed  in  the  official  costumes  that  had  been 
theirs,  while  before  it  would  be  borne  the  military 
and  civic  rewards  that  the  deceased  had  won. 
Musicians  playing  doleful  strains  headed  the  proces- 
sion, followed  by  hired  mourners  who  united  lamen- 
tations with  songs  in  praise  of  the  virtue  of  the 
departed.  Players,  buffoons,  and  liberated  slaves 
followed,  and  of  the  actors  one  represented  the 
deceased,  imitating  his  words  and  actions.  The 
couch  on  which  the  body  rested  as  it  was  carried 
was  often  of  ivory  adorned  with  gold,  and  was  borne 
by  the  near  relatives  or  freedmen,  though  Julius 
Caesar  was  carried  by  magistrates  and  Augustus  by 
senators. 

Behind  the  body  the  relatives  walked  in  mourn- 
ing, which  was  black  or  dark  blue,  the  sons  having 
their  heads  veiled,  and  the  daughters  wearing  their 
hair  dishevelled,  and  both  uttering  loud  lamenta- 
tions, the  women  frantically  tearing  their  cheeks  and 
beating  their  breasts.  As  the  procession  passed 
through  the  forum  it  stopped,  and  an  oration  was 
delivered  celebrating  the  praises  of  the  deceased, 
after  which  it  went  on  through  the  city  to  some 
place  beyond  the  walls  where  the  body  was  burned 
or  buried.  We  have  seen  that  burial  was  the  early 
mode  of  disposing  of  the  dead,  and  that  Sulla  was 
the  first  of  his  gens  to  be  burned.*  In  case  of  burn- 
ing, the  body  was  placed  on  a  square,  altar-like  pile 
of  wood,  still  resting  on  the  couch,  and  the  nearest 
relative,  with  averted  face,  applied  the  torch.  As 
the  flames  rose,  perfumes,  oil,  articles  of  apparel, 
*  See  page  197. 


THE  ASff-UXXS.  329 

and  dishes  of  food  were  cast  into  them.  Sometimes 
animals,  captives,  or  slaves  were  slaughtered  on  the 
occasion,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  gladiators  were  hired 
to  fight  around  the  flaming  pile.* 

When  the  fire  had  accomplished  its  work,  and  the 
whole  was  burned  down,  wine  was  thrown  over  the 
ashes  to  extinguish  the  expiring  embers,  and  the  re- 
mains were  sympathetically  gathered  up  and  placed 
in  an  urn  of  marble  or  less  costly  material.  A  priest 
then  sprinkled  the  ashes  with  pure  water,  using  a 
branch  of  olive  or  laurel,  the  urn  was  placed  in  a 
niche  of  the  family  tomb,  and  the  mourning  relatives 
and  friends  withdrew,  saying  as  they  went  Vale, 
vale  !  When  they  reached  their  homes  they  under- 
went a  process  of  purification,  the  houses  themselves 
were  swept  with  a  broom  of  prescribed  pattern,  and 
for  nine  days  the  mourning  exercises,  which  included 
a  funeral  feast,  were  continued.  In  the  case  of  a 
great  man  this  feast  was  a  public  banquet,  and  gladi- 
atorial shows  and  games  were  added  in  some  in- 
stances, and  they  were  also  repeated  on  anniversaries 
of  the  funeral. 

The  public  buried  the  illustrious  citizens  of  the 
nation,  and  those  whose  estates  were  too  poor  to 
pay  such  expenses  ;  the  former  being  for  a  long  time 
laid  away  in  the  Campus  Martius,  until  the  site  be- 
came unhealthy,  when  it  was  given  to  Maecenas, 
who  built  a  costly  house  on  it.  The  rich  often 
erected  expensive  vaults  and  tombs  during  their 
own  lives,  and  some  of  the  streets  for  a  long  distance 
from  the  city  gate  were  bordered  with  ornamental 
*  See  pages  158  and  210. 


330  THE  ROAfANS  SERIOUS  AND  GA  Y. 

but  funereal  structures,  which  must  have  made  the 
traveller  feel  that  he  was  passing  through  unending 
burial-places.  If  a  tomb  was  fitted  up  to  contain 


A  COLUMBARIUM. 


many  funeral  ash-urns,  it  was  known  as  a  columba- 
rium, or  dove-cote  (columba,  a  dove),  the  ashes  of 
the  freedmen  and  even  slaves  being  placed  in  niches 


ORGIES  AND  DECAY.  33 1 

covered  by  lids  and  bearing  inscriptions.  The 
Romans  ornamented  their  tombs  in  a  variety  of 
ways,  but  did  not  care  to  represent  death  in  a  direct 
manner.  The  place  of  burial  of  a  person,  even  a 
slave,  was  sacred,  and  one  who  desecrated  it  was 
liable  to  grave  punishment — even  to  death, — if  the 
bodies  or  bones  were  removed.  Oblations  of  flowers, 
wine,  and  milk  were  often  brought  to  the  tombs  by 
relatives,  and  sometimes  they  were  illuminated. 

Almost  every  country  lying  under  a  southern  sun 
is  accustomed  to  rejoice  at  the  annual  return  of  flow- 
ers, and  ancient  Rome  was  not  without  its  May-day. 
Festivals  of  the  sort  are  apt  to  degenerate  morally, 
and    that,  also,  was  true   of  the  Floralia,  as  these 
feasts  were  called  at  Rome.     It  is  said  that  in  the 
early   age  of  the  republic  there  was  found  in  the 
Sibylline  books  a  precept  commanding  the  institu- 
tion of  a  celebration  in  honor  of  the  goddess  Flora, 
who  presided  over  flowers  and  spring-time,  in  order 
to    obtain   protection    for   the   blossoms.     The  last 
three  days  of  April  and  the  first  two  of  May  were 
set  apart  for  this  purpose,  and  then,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  aediles,  the  people  gave  themselves 
to  all  the  delights  and,  it  must  be  confessed,  to  man) 
of   the   dissipations   of   the   opening  spring, 
amusements  were  of  a  varied  character,  inch 
scenic  and  other  theatrical  shows,  great  mem 
feasting,  and  drinking.    Dance  and  song  add 
gay  pleasures,  and  flowers  adorned  the  : 
met  the  eye  on  every  hand.     Probably  no  part. 
deity  was  honored  at  these  festivals  at  first 
were  simply  the  unbending  of  the  rustics 


332  THE  ROMANS  SERIOUS  AND   GAY. 

cold  of  winter,  the  rejoicings  natural  to  man  in 
spring ;  but  finally  the  personal  genius  of  the  flowers 
was  developed  and  her  name  given  to  the  gay  festival. 

The  rustic  simplicity  represented  well  the  primal 
homeliness  of  the  nation  during  the  heroic  ages;  the 
orgies  of  the  crowded  city  may  be  put  for  the  grow- 
ing decay  of  the  later  period  when,  enriched  and  in- 
toxicated by  foreign  conquest  and  maddened  by 
civil  war,  the  republic  fell,  and  the  way  was  made 
plain  for  the  great  material  growth  of  the  empire,  as 
well  as  for  the  final  fall  of  the  vast  power  that  had 
for  so  many  centuries  been  invincible  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth; — a  power  which  still  stands 
forth  in  monumental  grandeur,  and  is  to-day  studied 
for  the  lessons  it  teaches  and  the  warnings  its  history 
titters  to  mankind. 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE 
NOTES. 


A. 

Achaea,  province  of,  166 
Achaean  League,  the,  revived,  163 
Acting,  Etruscan,  no 
Actium,  victory  of  Agrippa  off, 

268 

Actors  and  masks,  231 
^diles,  election  of,  and  duties 

of,  79 
yEneas,  fabled  to  have  invented 

a  game,  325  ;    relics   of,  14  ; 

story  of,  4  ;  Virgil's  story  of, 

7  ;  wanderings  of,  8 
^Eneid,  the,  of  Virgil,  309 
^Equians,  the,  come  down  upon 

the  city,  86  ;  the,  defeated,  87  ; 

war  with,  90 

yEsopus,  Claudius,  the  tragic  ac- 
tor, 232 

./Etolia  ravaged  by  Rome,  162 
^Etolians,  the,  claim  the  victory 

of  Cynocephalae,  161 
Africa,   Caesar   in,  245  ;   contest 

between    Rome  and  Carthage 

in,  132 

African  gold  used  at  Rome,  176 
Agamemnon,  the  Trojan  hero,  2 
Agrarian  law,  an,  proposed,  119, 

183,  184  ;  of  Csesar,  226  ;  of 

Caius     Flaminius,     135  ;      of 

Spurius  Cassius,  83 
Agrarian  laws,  the  first  and  last, 

82,  226 
Agriculture,      improvement    in, 

124  ;  the  first  occupation,  289  ; 

Varro's  work  on,  301 


Agrigentum  taken  by  Rome,  130 
Agrippa,  Marcus  Vipsanius,  the 

general,    256  ;     conquers  the 

forces  of  Fulvia,  262  ;  victory 

off  Naulochus  by,  26.4 
Ahenobarbus,  Cneius  Domitius, 

the  tribune,  183 
Aix,  Sertorius  at  the  battle  of, 

199 
Alba  Longa  founded,   10 ;  chief 

of  the  Latin  League,  34 
Alban  lake,   the,  drained,    95 ; 

rise  of,  94 

Alesia,  siege  of,  229 
Alexander  the  Great,  death  of, 

1 20  ;  period  of,  in 
Alexander   I.,    King  nf  Epirus, 

helps  the  Tarentines,  120 
Alexandria,    Antony  and   Cleo- 
patra at,   267  ;     Rome  sends 

ambassadors  to,  123 
Alexandrian  library,  the,  burned, 

245 

Alexandrine  war,  the,  245 

Allia,  battle  of  the,  101  ;  terrible 
days  of  the,  brought  to  mind. 
136 

Allies,  favoring  the,  legally  op- 
posed, 187  ;  hope  only  for 
relief  by  revolution,  187  ;  im- 
patient for  the  franchise.  186  ; 
interests  of,  identical  with 
those  of  Rome,  2l6 ;  obtain 
concessions,  188  ;  position  of 
the,  124 

Alps,  the,  crossed  by  Hannibd, 
140 


334      INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES. 


Amalthea,    the   Sibyl   of  Cumae, 
comes  to  Tarquin  the  Superb, 

59 
Amphitheatre,  invention  of  the, 

325 
Amulius     takes     his     brother's 

throne,  It 

Anchises,  father  of  ^Eneas,  2 
Ancus  Martius,  the  fourth  king, 

37 

Andria,  the,  of  Terence,  298 
Andronicus,   Livius,  the  drama- 
tist, 295  ;  works  of,  310 
Antiochus  the  Great,  allied  with 
Philip  V.,  1 60  ;  gives  Hanni- 
bal an  asylum,  148  ;  war  with, 
161  « 

Antiquities,     the    Book    of,    by 

Varro,  302 

Antium,  naval  battle  off,  116 
Antony,  Marc,  at  the  Luper- 
calia,  313;  chief  man  in  Rome, 
252  ;  defeats  Cassius,  and  takes 
the  East  as  his  domain,  261  ; 
endeavors  to  defame  Cicero, 
258  ;  failing  fortunes  of,  263  ; 
flees  to  Caesar,  232,  240  ;  left 
in  charge  of  Italy,  243  ;  moves 
the  people,  252  ;  offers  Caesar 
the  crown,  248  ;  opposes  the 
plans  of  Octavius,  257  ;  oration 
over  Caesar's  body,  251  ;  papers 
of,  burned,  270  ;  possessed  of 
Caesar's  moneys,  256  ;  takes 
possession  of  Caesar's  papers, 
251  ;  warned  against  the  wiles 
of  Cleopatra,  267 
Antony  and  Cleopatra,  suicides 

of,  268 
Apellicon   of    Teos,    library    of. 

192 

Apollo,  shrine  of,  at  Delphi,  60 
Apollonia,  Octavius  at,  255 
Apollonius    of    Alabanda,     sur- 
named  Molo,    the  rhetorician, 
217 

Appian  Way,  the,  124 
Apii  Forum,  Horace  at,  265 
Appuleian   laws,   the,  supported 
by  Marius,  185 


Appuleins,  see  Saturninus,  185 

Apulia,  war  in,  117 

Aquae  Sextiae,  victory  of  Marius 
over  the  Celts  at,  181 

Aqueducts,  building  of,  159 

Aquitania,  subjection  of,  229 

Arausio,  rout  of  the  Romans  at, 
184 

Arcadia,  land  of  innocence  and 
virtue,  9 

Arcadian  happiness  in  the  North, 
98 

Archagathus,  the  first  physician, 
294 

Archimedes  at  the  fall  of  Syra- 
cuse, 144 

Ardea,  the  army  before,  62 

Arena,  meaning  of  the  word,  128 

Aricia,  Horace  at  the  inn  at,  265 

Ariminum,  an  army  sent  to,  136  ; 
Caesar's  advance  to,  240  ;  situ- 
ation of,  238 

Ariovistus  defeated  by  Caesar, 
227 

Aristocracy,  the,  Pompey's  rup- 
ture with,  212 

Aristocratic  character  of  the 
populus  Romanus,  73 

Aristocrats  at  head  of  govern- 
ment, 212  ;  defined,  170 

Aristotle,  knowledge  of,  brought 
to  Rome,  192 

Armor  of  the  different  classes,  52 

Army,  the,  largely  composed  of 
plebeians,  115 

Arnold,  Dr.,  on  the  second  Punic 
war.  138  ;  on  the  Roman  char- 
acter, 118 

Arsia,  battle  at,  65 

Art,  backward  in  Rome,  71  ;  not 
appreciated  by  Cicero,  204  ; 
theft  of  Verres  of  works  of, 
203 

Art-rooms  added  to  the  house, 
277 

As,  the  unit  of  weight  or  meas- 
ure, 51 

Ascanius  founds  Alba  Longa,   10 

Asculum,  battle  at,  122;  effect 
of,  on  Carthage,  123 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES.      335 


Asia,    province    of,     166 ;     con- 
quered by  Brutus  and  Cassius, 
261  ;  conquests   of   Rome  in, 
162  ;  Pompey's  power  in,  220  ; 
the  early  home  of  the  Gauls,  99 
Asiaticus,  a  name  of  Scipio,  162 
Assassination  of  Drusus,  186 
Assemblies     dispersed     by     the 

augurs,  319 

Assembly,  the  National,   forma- 
tion of,  50 

Astrology  flourishes,  318 
Astronomy,    Caesar's   knowledge 

of,  247 

Asylaeus,  the  god,  20 
Asylum,   founding  an,  at    Rome, 

2O 

Atellana  Fabulce,  the,  298 
Ater,  days  marked,  in  the  calen- 
dar, 85,  101,  283  ;  the  day  of 
the  defeat  at  Arausio,  184 
Athenians,  the,  favor  light  ships 

of  war,  131 
Athens,  besieged  by  Sulla,  190 ; 

commission  sent  to,  88 
Alia,  mother  of  Augustus,  255 
Atlantic,  blessed  islands  in  the, 

199 

Atrium,  the,  272,  274,  278 
Attains,    king  of    Pergamos,  an 
ally  of  Rome,   160  ;  bequeaths 
his  kingdom   to  the  Romans, 
166,  171 
Atticus,  life  of,  written  by  Ne- 

pos,  309 

Atys,  the  old  hero,  255 
Aufidus,  the  river,  143 
Augural  banquets,  luxury  of,  289 
Augurs,    duplicity   of,    319  ;    ex- 
amine the  Sibylline  Books,  59 
Augury,  the  system  of,  16 
Augustine,    St.,    makes    use    of 

Varro's  work,  302 
Augustus,     parentage     of,    255. 

(See  Octavius.) 
Auspices,    become     subjects    of 

jests,  319  ;  taking  the,  16 
Authorship,  beginning  of,  293 
Autocracy,    movements     toward 
an,  198 


Aventine  Hill,  the,  12  ;  assigned 
to  the  plebeians,  37,  77,  88, 
89 

B 

Bacchus,  worship  of,  319 
Bachelors  in  early  Rome,  21 
Banquets,      the    augural,     289 ; 

luxrry  of  the  augural,  289 
Barbarians  threaten  Rome,  181 
Bathing  in  Rome,  277 
Battles,  sham,  in  the  circus.  325 
Bed,  made  of  sheepskin,  280 
Beginnings  of  nations,  5 
Belgians,     the,      subjected      by 

Caesar,  227 
Belly    and    members,    apologue 

about,  78 
Beneventum,   battle   near,   117; 

defeat    of    Pyrrhus    at,     123; 

head  of  the  Calydonian    boar 

at,  13  ;  Horace  at,  265 
Biga,  the,  in  the  races,  324 
Birds,  augury  by,  17 
Birth  and  party,  212 
Black  day,  the,  of  the  Cremara, 

85  ;  of  the  Alli.i.  101 
Boarium,    Forum,    situation    of, 

136 
Body   and     its     members,    the, 

apologue  about,  78 
Bohemia,  Gauls  in,  99 
Bologna,    meeting  of   Octavius, 

Antony,    and    I-cpidus    near, 

258 

Bona  Dtti,  mysteries  of,  223 
Book-rooms  added  to  the  house. 

277 

Books,  how  made.  277 
Boreas  and  his  cold  winds,  98 
Boundaries,  laws  concerning,  30 
Bovianum  taken  by  the  Romans, 

"7 

Breakfast,  luncheon,  and  dinner, 

288 
Brennus,    leader   of    the   Gauls. 

trusts  in  his  sword,  loo  ;  burns 

Rome,  1 02  ;  throws  hi*  sword 

into  the  scales,  104 
Bribery,  law  against,  184 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES. 


Bribes,   in  Rome,    176  ;  Caesar's 

use  of,  227 

Brides,  customs  regarding,  283 
Bridge-builders,  32 
Bridge,   the  wooden  (pons  sub- 

licius),  32,  38  ;   Gracchus  flees 

over  the,  174 
Brindisi,  9 

Britain  visited  by  Caesar,  228 
Brundusium,  on  the  Appianway, 

124  ;  besieged  by  Antony,  263  ; 

besieged  by  Caesar,  243  ;   Oc- 

tavius  at,  255 

Bruttium,  gladiators  in,  211 
Brutus   and    Cassius    flee    from 

Rome,    252  ;    masters    of   the 

Eastern  world,  260 
Brutus,    D.    Junius,   funeral   of, 

158 
Brutus,  great-grandson  of  /Eneas, 

6 
Brutus,   Lucius  Junius,  goes    to 

Delphi,  60  ;  swears  to  avenge 

Lucretia,      63  ;     death      and 

mourning  for,  65—66 
Brutus,     Marcus     Junius,    plots 

against    Caesar,    249 ;    suicide 

of,  261 

Buffoonery  instead  of  wit,  no 
Buffoons  at  a  dinner,  265 
Burial  of  two  couples  alive  in  the 

Forum  Boarium,  136 
Burial-places  sacred,  331 

C. 

Csedicius,  Marcus,    the   tribune, 
hears  a  startling  voice,  loo 

Caepio,    Quintus     Servilius,    ill- 
gotten  gains  of,  184 

Caesar,   Caius   Julius,   birth   and 
character   of,    206  ;    assassina- 
tion of,  231  ;  beneficent  plans 
of,  246  ;  builds  the  first  amphi- 
theatre, so  called,  325  ;  called 
Father  of  his  Country,    246 
captured    by    pirates,      217 
clemency  of,    243,    245,    249 
250 ;    commentaries   of,    302 
crosses    the     Rubicon,     240 


death  of,  announced  to  Octa- 
vius,  255  ;  made  dictator  for 
ten  years  fifter  Thapsus,  246  ; 
eclipses  Pompey,  230  ;  goes  to 
Spain,  248  ;  governor  of  Gaul, 
226  ;  in  Asia,  245  ;  in  Greece, 
244  ;  intrigues  against  Pompey, 
221  ;  magical  power  of,  228  ; 
a  Marian,  207  ;  marries  a  rela- 
tive of  Pompey,  216  ;  obse- 
quies of,  251  ;  offers  to  give 
up  his  command,  238  ;  over- 
comes the  Pompeians  in  Spain, 
243;  popularity  with  his  army, 
235  ;  refuses  the  crown,  249  ; 
resists  Sulla,  206  ;  silent  prog- 
ress of,  224  ;  will  of.  252,  254 

Calendar,  the  Roman,  32,  33; 
jugglery  regarding,  236  ;  the, 
reformed,  247 

Camillus,  Marcus  Furius,  dicta- 
tor, 95 ;  dictator  the  second 
time,  102  ;  needed,  100 ;  re- 
called from  exile,  102  ;  reac- 
tion against,  97 ;  routs  the 
Gauls,  104  ;  saves  the  state  a 
third  time,  109  ;  the  second 
founder  of  Rome,  106 

Campania  inhabited  by  the  Sam- 
nites,  114  ;  servile  insurrection 
in,  183 

Campania  and  Capua  regained, 
144 

Campus  Martius,  assembly  of  the 
centuries  on,  54 

Canal,  the,  at  Tarracina,  265  ; 
travel  by  the,  290 

Candidates  for  office,  wiles  of,  290 

Cannae,  avenged  at  the  Metaurus, 
146;  dark  days  after,  150; 
rout  of  the  Romans  at,  143 

Canuleian  Law,  the,  92 

Canuleius,  Caius,  urges  the  re- 
peal of  a  marriage  law,  92 

Canusium,  Hannibal  at,  146  ; 
Horace  at,  266 

Canvassing  for  office,  290 

Capital  punishment,  law  regard- 
ing,  223 

Capitol,  the,  burning  of,  193 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES.      337 


Capi toline  H  ill,  citadel  on  the,  23 ; 
origin  of  name  of,  59  ;  temple 
of  the,  finished  by  Catulus,  208 

Capua  declares  for  Hannibal, 
143  ;  legions  of  Pompey  and 
Caesar  sent  to,  237  ;  luxury  at, 
115  ;  revolt  at,  245  ;  school  of 
gladiators  at,  209 

Capua  and  Campania  regained, 
144 

Carbo,  Caius  Papirius,  friend  of 
the  Gracchi,  172 

Carneades  visits  Rome,  319 

Carrhse,  disaster  at,  248  ;  loss  of 
Crassus  at,  234 

Carriages  prohibited  to  women  at 
a  certain  time,  150 

Carthage,  first  notices  Rome,  1 1 1 ; 
adds  to  its  territory,  139  ;  asks 
in  vain  for  peace,  132  ;  growth 
of,  126  ;  meaning  of  the  name, 
127;  commerce  of,  127;  con- 
gratulates Rome  on  the  victory 
of  Mt.  Gaurus,  115;  naval 
prestige  of,  destroyed,  131  ; 
on  her  guard  against  Rome, 
129;  recovers  lost  ground,  165; 
sends  a  fleet  to  help  Rome,  123; 
tributary  to  Rome,  147 

earthaginians,  defeated  at  the 
Metaurus,  146  ;  expelled  from 
Messana,  130;  in  Sicily,  123 

Cassius  and  Brutus  flee  from 
Rome,  252  ;  masters  of  the 
Eastern  world,  260,  261 

Cassius,  Spurius,  friend  of  the 
people,  82  ;  popularity  of, 
blasted,  84 

Cassius,  suicide  of,  261  ;  see 
Longinus,  249 

Castor  and  Pollux,  festival  in 
honor  of,  68 ;  interfere  for 
Rome,  67 

CatilinA,  the  work  of  Sallust,  305 
Catiline,    Lucius     Sergius,   con- 
spiracy    of,   205,    221  ;    flees 
from  Rome,  222  ;  traits  of,  204 
Cato,  Marcus  Porcius,  conserva- 
tive views  of,   152;    eggs  the 
Romans  against  Carthag-',  165; 


intercedes  for  the  captive 
Achaeans,  164 ;  manual  of  ed- 
ucation of,  293 ;  model  of 
Brutus,  250 ;  on  foreign  doc- 
tors, 294  ;  on  the  care  of  chil- 
dren, 284 ;  on  the  duplicity 
of  the  augurs,  319  ;  •  oppoKS 
Scipio,  156 

Cato,  Marcus  Porcius,  of  Utica, 
a  determined  enemy  of  Caesar, 
234  ;  defeat  and  death  of,  245  ; 
flees  from  Rome,  242  ;  opposes 
Pompey,  221 

Catulus  and  Hortensius  defeated 
by  Cicero,  219 

Catulus,  Quintus  I.utatius,  con- 
sul and  aristocrat,  207;  op- 
poses the  Cimbri,  182 

Calullus,  Valerius,  writings  of. 
302 

Caudine  Forks,  battle  of  the,  1 17 

Celer  kills  a  man,  2O 

Celeres,  the  body-guard  of  Rom- 
ulus, 27 

Celerity,  Plutarch's  derivation  of, 
20 

Celts  and  Germans  threaten 
Rome,  181 

Censors,  appointment  of,  49  '• 
power  of,  limited  by  Sulla,  195; 
rank  of,  93 

Census,  taken  by  consuls,  93; 
taking  of,  by  Servius  Tullius, 

49 
Centuries,  the  formation  of  the, 

5° 

Ceremonies,  increase  of.  317 
Ceres,  goddess  of  agriculture,  79 ; 

the  Greek  Demeter,  314 
Chaldea,  astrology  of,  319 
Chance,  games  of.  320 
Chariot-races,  323 
Charon,  coin  to  pay,  327 
Charran,  the  city  of  Nahor,  234 
Childhood,  plays  of,  320 
Children  and  the  control  of  them, 

282 

Chimneys  not  known,  279 
China  and  Egypt,  antiquity  of  4 
Ciccio,  Marvus  TulUu»,  traits  of, 


338      INDEX  TO   THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES. 


202  ;  causes  conspirators  to  be 
put  to  death,  223  ;  correspond- 
ence of,  237  ;  courted  on  ac- 
count of  his  oratory,  216  ; 
courts  Pompey,  22 1  ;  exposes 
Catiline,  222  ;  first  oration  be- 
fore the  people,  219  ;  lauds 
Labienus,  242 ;  leader  of  the 
senate,  251  ;  outlawed,  224  ; 
proscription  of,  260  ;  prose- 
cutes Verres,  204,  216;  re- 
marks of  Froude  concerning, 
257 ;  a  rhetorical  victory  of, 
219  ;  says  that  he  expected 
Curio  to  desert  to  Caesar,  237  ; 
unmanliness  of,  223  ;  won  by 
Octavius,  256  ;  the  works  of, 
299,  300 

Cilicia,  Verres  in,  203 

Cimbri,  the,  enter  Central  Eu- 
rope, 181 

Ciminian  Hills,  the,  battle  near, 

."? 

Cincinnatus,     Lucius     Quintius, 

career  of,  86  ;  at  his  plow, 
274 

Cineas,  the  Thessalian,  minister 
of  Pyrrhus,  121  ;  goes  to 
Rome  to  sue  for  peace,  122 

Cinna,  Lucius  Cornelius,  takes 
part  with  Marius,  190;  assas- 
sinated, 193  ;  marches  on 
Rome,  190 

Circus  Maximus,  the,  44 ;  great 
games  of  the,  322  ;  origin  of 
the  word,  223  ;  situation  of, 
136  ;  the  single  one,  158 

City,  rites  at  the  foundation  of  a, 
18,  19 

Class  distinctions  weakened,  212 

Classes,  of  people  in  Italy,  124; 
the  six,  of  Servius  Tullius,  50 

Claudia,  daughter  of  Fulvia,  re- 
nounced by  Octavius,  262 

Claudius,  Appius,  Sabinus  Reg- 
illensis,  68  ;  decemvir,  88  ; 
influence  of,  89  ;  origin  of, 
68  ;  protests  against  peace 
with  Pyrrhus,  122  ;  wicked- 
ness of,  91 


Clausus,    Atta,    founder   of   the 

Claudian  house,  68 
Cleopatra     captivates     Antony, 

262  ;  war  against,  by  Octavius, 

268  ;   wins  Caesar,  244  ;  with 

Antony  in  Syria,  267 
Cloaca  Maxima,  the,  built,  44  ; 

situation  of,  136 
Clodius,  Publius,  Pulcher,  224  ; 

intrigue  of,  223 

Cloth  made  by  wives  and  daugh- 
ters, 284 
Clusium,  attacked  by  the  Gauls, 

99  ;    defeat    of    the    Romans 

near,  136  ;  Porsena,  Lars,  of, 

66 
Coccles,    Horatius,   defends   the 

wooden  bridge,  66 
Ccelian  Hill,  the,  assigned  to  the 

Albans,  36 

Ccena,  the  Roman  dinner,  288 
Cohorts,  the  Marsic,  meaning  of, 

187 
Collatinus,  husband  of  Lucretia, 

62 

Collections,  penny,  318 
Colline  Gate,  battle  at  the,  193, 

199 
Colonies,  citizens  in  the,  124  ;  in 

the  West,  relation  of  Sertorius 

to,  199  ;  of  Carthage,  128 
Colosseum,  the,  325, 
Columbarium,  the,  330 
Comitia,  election  of  consulsby,  64 
Comitia  Centuriata,  formation  of, 

50 
Comitia   Curiata,    rights   of,  28, 

223  ;   not  abolished  by  Servius 

Tullius,  52 
Commentaries,    the,    of    Caesar, 

226,  302 
Commerce  begins  in  Rome,  71 ; 

increase  of,  124 
Commons,  a  king  from  the,  48  : 

rights  of,  swept  away,  58 
Concord,    temple   of,    scene    of 

Cicero's  oratory,  258 
Conference  at  Tarentum,  264 
Confiscation  of   the   property  of 

Cicero,  224 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES. 


339 


Confiscations  of  Verres,  203 

Confusion,  year  of,  248 

Congiarium,  the,  of  Sulla,  196 

Conquest,  consequences  of,  333  ; 
meaning  of,  in  the  early  times, 
87 

Conservatism,  the,  of  Cato,  156 

Consulate  obtained  by  Octavius, 
258 

Consuls,  choice  of,  after  the 
banishment  of  the  Tarquins, 
64  ;  endowed  with  dictatorial 
powers,  240 ;  the  first  ple- 
beian, 109 

Consus,  celebration  in  honor  of, 
by  Romulus,  21  ;  festival  of, 
322 

Copper  found  in  Italian  soil,  71 

Corfinum  chosen  by  the  allies  as 
capital  of  Italy,  187 

Corinth,  growth  of,  39  ;  taken  by 
the  Romans,  sacked  and  pil- 
laged, 164 

Coriolanus,  Caius  Marcius,  at 
Lake  Regillus,  68;  as  an  office- 
seeker,  290  ;  banishment  and 
death  of,  82  ;  origin  of  name 
of,  80 

Cornelia,  daughter  of  Scipio, 
167  ;  jewels  of,  168  ;  urges 
Gracchus  to  do  some  great 
work,  170 

Cornelia,  wife  of  Caesar,  206 
Cornelian  gens  bury  their  dead, 

197 
Cornelians,  name  of  the  veterans 

of  Sulla,   196  ;  the,  headed  by 

Catiline,  207 
Correspondence,  the,  of  Cicero, 

299 
Corruption  in  the  provinces,  216  ; 

in  the  state,  174 
Corsica  and  Sardinia  taken  from 

Carthage,  134 
Corvus,   Marcus  Valerius,  aided 

by  a  raven,  113;  victorious  at 

Mount  Gaurus,  114 
Cothurnus,  use  of,  286 
Courses  at  dinner,  288 
Crassus,  Marcus  Licinius,  Dives, 


thrifty  ways  of,  200;  makes 
peace  with  Pompcy,  214; 
leasts  the  people,  216  ;  jealous 
of  Pompey,  214,  217  ;  opposes 
Pompey,  221  ;  rewarded  by 
Caesar,  226 
Crassus  and  Pompey  exterminate 

the  gladiators,  211 
Crassus,    Caesar,    and    Pompey. 

232 

Cremara,  battle  of  the,  85 
Cremation,  the,  of  Sulla's  body, 

197 

Cremation  or  burial,  327,  328 
Cremona,  colony  at,  136 
Crime,    increase    of,     makes    a 

prison  necessary,  38 
Critolaus  visits  Rome,  319 
Crown,  the  oaken,  awarded,  68 
Crucifixion  of  gladiators,  211 
Culina,  the,  278 
Cumae,  relics  at,  14 ;    the  Sibyl 

of,  59 

Cures,  home  of  Numa,  29 
Curio,  Caius  Scribonius,    a  par- 
tisan of  Caesar,  235  ;  delivers 
a  letter  in  Rome,  238  ;  invents 
the  amphitheatre,  325 
Curses  of  the  ambassadors  from 

Veii  fulfilled,  102 
Curtius,  idea  of  substitution  in- 
volved in  the  story  of,  317 
Curtius,  Marcus,  no 
Curtius,  Mettus,  story  of,  24 
Cybele,  the  Idaean  mother,  153 
Cydnus,  Cleopatra  on  the,  262 
Cynocephala',    Macedonians  de- 
feated at  the,  160 
Cypress,  the,  a  sign  of  sorrow, 

274 
Cypselus,  birth  of,  40 

D. 
Dance  and  song  at  the  Floralia, 

33' 

Death  and  funerals,  336 

Death,  law  regarding  punish- 
ment of,  223 

Debtor,  a  desperate,  excites  the 
people,  75 


34°      INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES. 


Debtors,  release  of,  78  ;  trials  of, 

74 
Debts,  abolished  to  afford  relief 

to  the  poor,  119  ;  burdens  of, 

after  the  burning  of  the  city, 

115;    pressing    heavily,    119; 

the,  of  Curio,  235 
Decemvirs,    take    the    place    of 

other  officers,  88  ;  haughtiness 

of,  90 

Deities,  the,  of  early  Rome,  72 
Delayer,  the  (Fabius),  139. 
Delphi,    the    oracle    at,  39,  60 ; 

consulted    about    the    rise    of 

Alban  Lake,  94 

Demaratus  goes  to  Tarquinii,  40 
Demosthenes,      Phillippics      of, 

257 

Dentatus,  see  Sicinius,  90 
Diana,  temple  to,  on  the  Aven- 

tine,  48 

Dice,  games  with,  321 
Dictator,      a,      appointed,     67  ; 

office    of,    renewed   by    Sulla, 

194  ;  Fabius,  chosen,   142 
"  Die  is  cast,"  the,  exclamation 

of  Caesar,  241 
Dining-room,  the,  276 
Dinner,    the   formal,    289 ;    how 

served,    289  ;     luncheon    and 

breakfast,    288 
Diogenes  visits  Rome,  319 
Diomede,  arms  of,  at  Luceria,  14 
Discus,  throwing  the,  325 
Dishes  at  dinner,  289 
Distinctions,    political,    between 

the  two  orders  wiped  out,  109 
Dives,  a  name  of   Crassus,    22, 

224 

Dogs  as  guardians,  274 
Dolls,  the,  of  Roman  girls,  320 
Domestic  slaves,  282 
Domitian  law,  the,  183 
Domitius,  see  Ahenobarbus,  183 
Drains,  the  great,  of  Tarquin,  44 
Drama,  the  earliest,  296  ;  growth 

of  the,  158 
Dramatic  exhibitions  prohibited, 

281 
Dress  among  the  Romans,  285 


Drusus,    Marcus  Livius,  the  op- 
ponent  of  Gracchus,   174  ;  at- 
tempts reform,  186  ;  remark  of, 
about  his  house,  187 
Duilius,  Caius,  defeats  the  Car- 

thaginians,  131 
Duria,    Hannibal  in    the   valley 

of  the,  140 

Dwelling,  an  expensive,  200 
Dwellings  poor  in  early  days,  71 
Dyrrachium,  defeat  of  Caesar  at, 
244 


E 


Economus,  point  of  departure  of 

Regulus,  132  ;  battle  of,  132 
Education,   the  early,  in   Rome, 

292  ;   efforts  of   Sertorius  for, 

199  ;  the,  of  Horace,  307 
Egeria,   the  nymph   that    Numa 

pretended  to  meet,  32 
Egg  to  the  apple,  from  the,  288 
Egnatia,  route  of  the  road,  261 
Egypt,  ambassadors  sent  to,  123  ; 

antiquity  of,  4 
Elephants,    introduced    by    Pyr- 

rhus,  120  ;  use  of,  by  Xanthip- 

pus,  132 

Elpenor,  tomb  of,  14 
Elysium,  the,  of  Plato,  200 
Emigration,    the,    of    Demaratus 

from  Corinth,  40 
Empire,  establishment  of,  270  ; 

material  growth  of  the,  332  ; 

tendency  towards  an,  198 
Ennius,  works  of,  296 
Epeus,  tools  of,  13 
Epicurus,     philosophy     of,     ex- 
hibited by  Lucretius,  304 
Equites,  the  (knights),  28 
Era,   beginning  of   a  new,   212, 

270 

Ercte,  Mount,  Hamilcar  at,  134 
Eryx,  Hamilcar  at,  134 
Esquiline  Hill,  concentration  of 

freedmen   on,    168  ;    house   of 

Maecenas  on,  311 
Etruria,   customs   derived   from, 

18  ;   twelve  cities  of,  9  ;  visit 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES,      34! 


of  Gracchus  to,  and  its  results, 
169 
Etruscan    acting,    imitation    of, 

298. 

Etruscans,    civilization    of,   42 ; 
names  of  the,  15  ;  defeated  at 
Lake  Vadimonis,  117  ;  in  the 
Marsic  war,  187  ;  weakened  by 
the  Gauls,  99  ;  Greek  descent 
of  the,  9  ;  peace  with  the,  122  ; 
and   Romans   fight,  65  ;    take 
sides  with  the  Samnites,  117 
Evander,  the  good  king,  9 
Exile,  punishment  of,  291 
Exiles  recalled  by  Antony,  254 
Expediency,  doctrine  of,  opposed 
by  Cato,  319 


Fabian  family,  the,  cut  off,  85 
Fabii,   the  followers  of  Remus, 

17 ;    destruction  of  the,   lot  ; 

the,  overthow  Cassius,  84 
Fabius,   Marcus,  takes  the   part 

of  the  plebeians,  84 
Fabius  Maximus,  see   Maximus, 

117;      career    of,     145,     146; 

looks  askance  at  Scipio,  156; 

regains  Campania,  144 
Fabius,  the  Delayer,   see  Maxi- 
mus, 139 

Fables  of  early  history,  5,  8 
Family,  Vesta,   goddess  of   the, 

315 

Famine  in  Rome,  80 
Farces,  the  early  rude,  298 
Father,    autocratic    authority   of 

the,  71,  282 
Father  of  his  country,  title  borne 

by     Camillus,     Cicero,     and 

Caesar,  246 
Faustulus     finds    Romulus    and 

Remus,  12 
Fawn,    the  white,   of    Sertorius, 

199 
Felix,  the   lucky,  title   assumed 

by  Sulla,  195 
Festivals,    great    cost    of,    322  ; 

slow  growth  of,  158 
Fidenae  mined,  94 


Finances  administered  by  the 
censors,  93 

Fire  and  water,  symbolical 
meaning  of,  291 

Flamens,  the,  32 

Flaminian  road,  the,  238 

Flamininus,  Lucius  Quinlu*. 
commands  the  Roman  army  in 
Greece,  160 

Flaminius,  Cams,  killed  at  lake 
Trasimenus,  142 

Flogging  in  school,  307 

Flora,  festival  of  the  goddess,  331 

Floralia,  the,  33 

Food,  Greek  influence  on,  287 

Fortune,  Feminine,  temple  to, 
82 

Forum,  opening  in  the  earth  in 
the,  no  ;  women  in  the,  152 

Forum  Romanum,  meeting-place 
of  Romans  and  Sabines,  26 

Founding  of  Rome  the  second 
time,  106 

Franchise,  how  obtained  by 
allies,  188  ;  restriction  of  the, 
by  Gracchus,  168 

Freedmen,  and  other  citizens, 
difference  between.  i8S  ;  gath- 
ered on  the  Esquiline,  168 ; 
replaced  by  slaves  in  Sicilian 
fields,  1 66 

Froude,  James  Anthony,  on  Cice- 
ro. 257 

Fulvia,  widow  of  Clodius  and 
wife  of  Antony  and  Curio,  235; 
opposes  Octavius  and  i»  de- 
feated by  his  general.  Agrip- 
pa,  262;  wife  of  Antony,  for- 
gotten by  him,  262 ;  death 
of,  263 

Funeral  ceremonies,  326  ;  fights 
of  gladiators,  158.  210;  ora- 
tion over  the  body  of  Qwar. 
251 

Funeral,  the.  of  Sulla,  197 

Furies,  temple  of  the,  174 


Gabii.  schools  at.  >6 
Gabinian  law,  the    218 


342      INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES. 


Gabinius  the  tribune,  218 

Gallia  Cisalpina,  boundaries  of, 
123  ;  provincia,  166 

Gambling,  321 

Games,  at  the  Circus  Maximus, 
44 ;  celebrated  by  Romulus, 
21,  22  ;  the  Roman,  321  ;  of 
the  children,  320  ;  a  law  re- 
garding, 150 

Gastronomy,  epoch  in,  289 

Gaul,  assigned  to  Caesar,  228  ; 
Caesar  governor  of,  226 ;  con- 
quest of,  229 

Gauls,  aid  the  Etruscans  against 
Rome,  118 ;  alarmed  by  the 
approach  of  Roman  settlers, 

135  ;   annihilated  at  Telamon  , 
136 ;      attack      Rome,      108  ; 
climb    the    Capitoline,      103  ; 
come     to     Italy,    99  ;      flock 
to  Hannibal,    140 ;    habits   of 
the,   98  ;    havoc   by  increased 
hardships  of  poor  debtors,  109; 
neglect  Hannibal,  142  ;  routed 
at   Aquae    Sextiae   by  Marius, 
181  ;     territory     gained    from 
the,  135 

Gaurus,  battle  of  Mount,  114 
Germans     and     Celts     threaten 

Rome,  181 

Ghosts,  exorcising  the,  316 
Gladiatorial  exhibition,  the  first, 

136  ;  great  cost  of,  322 
Gladiators  at  funerals,  158,  329  ; 

classes  of,  209 ;  fight  at  com- 
mand of  Caesar,  246  ;  fights  of, 
209  ;  fights  of,  in  Pompey's 
theatre,  232  ;  rising  of,  under 
Spartacus,  210 

Gods,  Roman  belief  in,  312  ; 
honored  in  the  farm-house,  281  ; 
traits  of  the,  317 

Gold  of  Tolosa  (ill-gotten  gains), 
184 

Gold  supposed  to  have  been  taken 
from  Brennus,  243 

Golden  age,  the,  of  Numa,  33 

Government,  stages  of,  in  early 
Rome,  72 

Governor,  a  provincial,  203,  222 


Gracchi,  the,  168;  reforms  of,  ap- 
parently practicable,  184 

Gracchus,  Caius,  death  of,  174 ; 
misses  an  opportunity,  171  ; 
popularity  of,  172 

Gracchus,  Tiberius,  becomes 
husband  of  Cornelia,  167 ; 
goes  to  Africa,  168  ;  murder  of, 
171  ;  not  understood,  172 

Gradivus,  Mars,  delights  in  war, 

314 
Gratia,   Magna,    contributes   to 

Roman  culture,  295,  296 
Grain,  distributed  by  Crassus, 
216 ;  free,  promised  by  Lepi- 
dus,  208  ;  Pompey  pretends  to 
seek  supplies  of,  227  ;  price  of, 
falls,  218  ;  proposal  to  sell,  at 
nominal  prices,  185  ;  rise  of 
price  of,  264  ;  sold  at  low  rates 
by  Gracchus,  173  ;  supply  of, 
threatened,  217 

Grammar,  Varro's  work  en,  301 
Greece,  commission  sent  to  learn 
about  its  laws,  83  ;  decadence 
of,  158  ;  fall  of  the  liberties  of, 
165  ;  influence  of,  152  ;  influ- 
ence of,    on    Latin   literature, 
319  ;     philosophy     of,    enters 
Rome,     319  ;    a   Roman   pro- 
vince, 165  ;  tyrranny  in,  72 
Grecian  influence  on  food,  287  ; 

on  mental  culture,  292 
Greek  art  not  appreciated,  204 
Greeks,  names  of  the,  15 
Gregorian  calendar,  the,  247 
Guilds,  institution  of,  by  Numa, 

31 

Gymnasts  in  Pompey's  theatre, 
232 

H 

Hadrumentum,     Hannibal    asks 

terms  at,  147 
Hamilcar  Barca,  comes  upon  the 

stage,  133  ;  defeated  by  Regu- 

lus  off  Economus,  132 
Hannibal,  appears,  137;  demands 

war,  140  ;  fate  of,  148  ;  great- 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES.      343 


ness  of,  138  ;  neglected,  142  ; 
policy  of,  142  ;  returns  to  Af- 
rica, 147  ;  successes  of,  143, 
144  ;  and  Vercingetorix  com- 
pared, 229 

Hasdrubal,  despatches  of,  inter- 
cepted, 146  ;  tries  to  aid  Han- 
nibal, 146 
Heating  and  lighting  the  houses, 

279 
Heautontimoroumenos,     the,     of 

Terence,  299 
Helen,  story  of,  2 
Heliodorus  the  Greek  rhetorician , 

265 

Helvetii,  the,  conquered  by  Cae- 
sar, 227 
"  Hercules,    how    cold    are   thy 

baths,"  1 80 

Hercules,  weapons  of,  13 
Hercynian  forests,  the,  99 
Herodotus  goes  to  Phoenicia,  127 
Heroes,  the  age  of,  66 
Hiero,  king   of   Syracuse,    129; 
makes  permanent   peace  with 
Rome,  130 

Hills,  the  "  Seven,"  49 
Hippodrome,  the,  at  a  villa,  281 
History,  fables  of  early,  5  ;  made 
up  of  acts  of  fighting  men,  271 
Holidays,  but  one,  158 
Holy  of  Holies,   the,  examined 

by  Pompey,  221 
Homer's  story  of  Troy,  I 
Horace   and  Virgil,  journey  of, 

265 

Horace  (Quintus  Horatius  Flac- 
cus),  works  of,  306  ;  at  Taren- 
tum,  264 

Horatii  and  Curiatii,  the,  34 
Horse-racing  in  the  circus,  323 
Horse,  the  wooden,  of  Troy,  2 
Hortensian  laws,  109,  119 
Hortensius,  Quintus,    the  orator, 
defends  Verres,   204  ;  augural 
dinner  of,    289 ;    defeated  by 
Cicero,  219 

Hospitality  in  the  farm  villa,  280 
Hostilius,    Hostus,   champion  of 
Rome,  24 


Houses  in  Rome,  272 
Huckle-bones,  games  with,  320 
Hungary,  Gauls  in,  99 
Hyperboreans,  the,   as  depicted 
by  the  Greeks,  98 


I 


Icilian  law,  the,  88 

Icilius,  Lucius,  affianced  to  Vir- 
ginia, 90  ;  stirs  up  the  people. 
91 

Ideal,  the,  no  leaning  toward,  at 
Rome,  158 

Ides  of  March,  the  fatal,  250 

Illyria  added  to  Roman  domin- 
ions, 135 

Insurrections,  servile,  175 

Interest,  rates  of,  74  ;  rate  of, 
lowered,  270 

Intermarriage,  right  of,  93 

Islands  of  the  blest,  199 

Isthmian  frames,  the,  joy  at,  161 

Itaiia,  early  inhabitants  of,  9 

Italians,  citizenship  offered  to 
the,  184  ;  suffrage  extended  to. 
173  ;  lands  to  be  divided 
among.  185 

Italy  and  Persia  contrasted  by 
Livy,  112 

Italy,  early  state  of,  9 ;  filled 
with  complaints,  262  ;  devas- 
tated by  Pyrrhus,  122;  laid 
waste  by  gladiators,  21 1 

J 

Janiculum  Hill,  secession  to  the. 

92,  119  ;  fortified,  37 
January  made  the  first  month,  33 
Janus,  temple  of,   founded.    32  ; 

gates  of.    closed    the    second 

time,    134  ;  third    closing   of. 

270 

Jewels,  the,  of  Cornelia.  168 
Jewish,     temple     examined     hy 

Pompey,  22o 

Judges,  corruption  of,  175 
Jugerum,  the  standard  of  square 

measure,  71 


344      INDEX  TO   THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES. 


Jugglery  of  the  priests,  319 
Jugurtha,  the  Numidian,  at  Nu- 

mantia,  175  ;  endeavors  to  gain 

control  of  Numidia,  176  ;  war 

with,  closed,  180 
Jugurtha,   the  work  of  Sallust, 

305 

Julia,  wife  of  Pompey,  dies,  234 
Julian  calendar,  the,  247 
July  named  for  Ctesar,  246 
Junia,  wife  of  Cassius,  250 
Jupiter,    prayer   to,    19  ;  among 

the  deities,  314 
Jupiter  Stator,  temple  vowed  to, 

26 

Jurisprudence,  epoch  in,  119 
Justice  and  injustice  confounded, 

319 

Justinian  codifies  Roman  law, 
246 

K 

King,  suspicions  that  Caesar 
wished  to  be,  249  ;  name  of, 
hated  by  the  Romans,  69,  171, 
236 

Kings,  characters  of  the  seven, 
70 

Kitchen  fire  at  Beneventum,  de- 
scribed by  Horace,  266 

Kitchen,  the  Roman,  278 


Labienus,  Titus,  deserts  Caesar, 
242 

Lacerna,  the,  286 

Lacus  Curtius,  origin  of,  24 

Lake,  Alban,  rise  of,  94 ;  Trasi- 
menus,  battle  of,  142  ;  Vadi- 
monis,  second  battle  near,  119  ; 
victory  at,  117 

Lanatus,  Menenius  Agrippa, 
treats  with  the  plebeians,  78  ; 
death  of,  79 

Land,  distributed  among  the  peo- 
ple, 119  ;  divided  among 
patricians,  96  ;  in  the  hands  of 
the  rich,  184 

Landholders  becoming  few,  184 


Lands,  allotment  of,  to  vet- 
erans, 261,  262  ;  assignment 
of,  stopped  by  the  optimates, 
174  ;  derived  from  the  Gauls 
divided  among  the  people,  83, 
135  ;  distribution  of,  among 
the  people,  by  Servius  Tullius, 
55  ;  divided  among  the  people 
by  Numa,  30 ;  another  dis- 
tribution of,  226  ;  proposed 
division  of,  by  Marius,  185  ; 
taken  by  the  rich,  169  ;  taken 
from  the  rich,  170;  wealth 
derived  from  illegal  use  of, 
83,  84 

Language,  improvement  in,  159 
Languages,  education  in  the,  199 
Lares  and  Penates,  the,  315 
Lateranus,  Lucius  Sextius.     See 

Sextius,  109 
Latin  name,  the,   125 
Latins,  dependent  upon    Rome, 
116  ;    determine   to    fight   for 
equality,      115  ;      invade     the 
Roman  territory,  37 
Latinus,  the  Italian  king,  10 
Latium,  leagues  with  the   thirty 

cities  of,  48  ;  size  of,  70 
Latrunculi,  game  of   (draughts), 

321 

Lavinia,  wife  of  /Eneas,  10 
Lavinium,   the  town  of   /Eneas, 

10  :  penates  of  yEneas  at,  14 
Law,  agrarian,  the  first,  83  ;  be- 
ginning of  the  study  of,  159; 
the  Appuleian,  185  ;  the  Canu- 
leian,  92  ;  the  Domitian,  183  ; 
the  Gabinian,  217 ;  the  Hor- 
tensian,  109,  119;  the  Icilian, 
88  ;  the  Licinian,  109 ;  the 
Manilian,  219;  the  Oppian, 
150;  the  Publilian,  109;  the 
Sempronian,  173  ;  proposal  to 
codify,  246  ;  principles  of  the 
Roman,  291 

Law  and  punishment,  291 
Laws,  made  by  the  rich  oppres- 
sive to  the  poor,  74  ;  mixed  con- 
dition of,  88  ;   sumptuary,  en- 
acted, 195 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES.      $45 


League,    the   Achaean,    revived 

163 
Leclisternium,     the,     performec 

the  third  time,   109 
Legion,  composition  of  the,  28 
Legislation  influenced  by  omens, 

319 

Lemuria,  the,  316 
Leniency  of  Caesar,  243,  245 
Lepidus,  Marcus  /Emilius,  left 
in  charge  of  Rome,  243  ;  at 
head  of  the  army,  251,  256  ; 
consul,  favors  the  Marians, 
207  ;  ignored  by  the  other  tri- 
umvirs, 261  ;  marches  to 
Rome,  208  ;  protests  against 
Sulla's  grand  funeral,  197  ; 
put  to  flight,  208  ;  retires  to 
private  life,  266 

Letters,  how  taught  to  children, 
295  ;  patronage  of,  by  Maece- 
nas, 311 
Libitina,  Venus,  temple  of,  326, 

327 

Library,  the  Alexandrian,  burn- 
ed,  245  ;    the,    of   Apellicon, 
brought  to  Rome,  192 
Libyssa,    place     of     Hannibal's 

death,  148 

Licinian  Rogations,  the,  passed, 
109 ;    remembered    by    Grac- 
chus, 169  ;  reestablished,  170 
»Life  in   Rome,   320  ;  in  a  rural 

house,  280 
Lilybaeum,  point  of  departure  of 

Scipio,  146  ;  siege  of,  133 
Literature,  backward,  71  ;  Cice- 
ro's  works,    202  ;   in    Greece, 
158  ;  none  in  Rome,  158 
Litter,  travel  in  a,  290 
Livy  (Titus  Livius),  writings  of, 
306  ;  history  of  Rome  by,  7  ; 
account  of  a  desperate  debtor, 
75  ;  on  the  character  of  Alex- 
ander,   in  ;   on    Roman    his- 
tory, 13  ;  on  the  second  Punic 
war,  138  ;  on  stage  plays,  no  ; 
story  of  Meltus  Curtius,  25 
Longinus,    Caius   Cassius,    plots 
against  Cassar,  249 


Lucania,  entered   by   the    Sam. 

nites,  117;  overcome,  145 
Lucanians  and   Tarentines,  war 

between.  120 
Lucca,  conference  at,  227 
Lucius  Tarquinius,  birth  of,  41 ; 

goes  to  Rome,  41 
Lucomo  (Lucius  Tarquinius),  41 
Lucretia,  story  of,    62  ;    at   her 

work,  71 
Lucretius  (Titus   Lucretius   Ca- 

rus),  works  of,  303 
Lucullus,   Lucius  Licinius.   «.<-nt 

to  Pontus,  218 
Lupercalia,  fatal  feast  of,   248, 

312 

Lupercus,  feast  of,  312 
Lustration,  the,  54 
Lustrum,  duration  of  a,  54 
Luxury,   increase  of,    186  ;   ten- 
dency towards,  152 

M 

Macedonia,  king  of.  attacked  by 

Pyrrhus,  120 
Macedonian  war,  the  first,   159, 

160 ;    the    second,    162  ;    the 

third  (with  Perseus),   163 
Maecenas,  Caius  Cilnius.  at  Ta- 

rentum,   264  ;   builds  a  house 

on  the  Campus  Martios,  329 ; 

in   command   at    Rome,  268  ; 

patronizes  Horace,  307;  traits 

of,  311  ;  villa  of,  282 
Magistrates,  laws  against  pecnla- 

tion  by,  184 
Magna   Gracia,    decadence   of. 

"7  ;  growth  of,  39  ;  influence 

of,  152;  Sam  nites  enter,  114 
Magnesia,  Roman  victory  at.  162 
Maleventum.  old  name  of  Beoc- 

ventum,  II"  ;  change  of  name 

of.   123 

M amerc.  a  form  of  "  Mar*."  129 
Mamertine  prison,  ilie,  built  \f 
Ancus  Martius.  38  ;  Jugunha 
starved  in,  ito 

Mamertines.  call  on  Rome  for  as- 
sistance, 129;  rise  of  the.  129 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES. 


Mamilius,    Octavius,    of   Tuscu- 

lum,  58  ;  aids  Tarquin,  67 
Manes,    the,    supposed    to    like 

blood,  158 

Manilian  law,  the,  219,  220 
Manlius,    Marcus,    hurled    from 
the   Tarpeian    rock,    108  ;    re- 
pels the  Gauls,  103  ;  takes  the 
part  of  the  plebeians,  108 
Manners,  refinement  in,  156 
Mantinaea,   defeat  of  Sparta  at, 

163 

Manufactures,  beginning  of,  289 
March,  Ides  of,  the,  250 
March,  the  first  month,  32 
Marians,  pursued    by    Pompey, 

202  ;  the,  in  Spain,  209 
Marius  and  Sulla,  traits  of,  185 
Marius,  Caius,  appearance  of,  on 
the  stage,  175  ;  appointed  to 
command  against  Mithridates, 
190 ;  body  of,  cast  into  the 
Anio,  194  ;  chosen  consul,  178; 
chosen  consul  the  fifth  time, 
182  ;  death  of,  190  ;  goes  to 
Gaul,  181  ;  joins  Cinna,  190; 
obliged  to  flee  to  Africa,  190  ; 
offers  himself  in  vain,  184 ; 
retirement  of,  185  ;  returns  to 
Rome  to  win  office,  178  ;  routs 
the  Cimbri  at  Vercellae,  182  ; 
the  third  founder  of  Rome, 
182  ;  triumph  of,  180  ;  ven- 
geance of,  1 88 

Marriage,  ceremonies  connected 
with,  282  ;  between  plebeians 
and  patricians  prohibited,  92  ; 
between  members  of  the  two 
orders  permitted,  92 
Mars,  prayer  to,  19;  traits  of,  314 
Marsian  war,  the,  187 
Masks  worn  by  actors,  231 
Massana  taken   by  the   Campa- 

nians  (Mamerlines),  129 
Matralia,  the  feast  of,  316 
Matronalia,  establishment  of, 

26  ;  feast  of,  316 
Matrons,    good   works   of,    154; 
a   movement   of   the    Roman, 
149  ;  appeal  to  Coriolanus,  81 


Maximus,  Fabius  (Rullus),  at  the 

battle  of  Vadimonis,  117 
Maximus,  Qumtus  Fabius,  139  ; 

chosen  dictator,  142 
May-day,  the  Roman,  331 
Medicine,  knowledge  of,  293 
Memoirs,  the,  of  Sulla,  196 
Men,  privileges  of,  as  viewed  by 

Cato,  152 

Menachmi,  the,  of  Plautus,  298 
Menenius  Agrippa,  see  Lanatus. 

78 
Menenius,     Titus,     accused     of 

treason,  85 

Mesalliance,  at  Corinth,  39 
Mesopotamia,  Crassus  in,  234 
Metapontem,  relics  at,  13 
Metaurus,  defeat  of  the  Cartha- 
ginians at  the,  146 
Metellus,    Caecilius,    Numidicus, 

sent  to  Africa,  178 
Metellus,   Lucius  Caecilius,  Cre- 
ticus,  opposes  Caesar's  attempt 
to  take  posession  of  the  sacred 
gold,  243 

Miasma  affects  the  Gauls,  104 
Mile-stones  erected  by  Gracchus, 

173 

Military  tribunes  with  power  of 
consuls,  93 

Milton's  way  of  writing  English 
history,  5 

Mistress  and  maid  at  work,  71 

Mithridates,  cut  off  and  defeated, 
220  ;  first  war  with,  189  ;  over- 
come by  Sulla,  192  ;  reckless 
ferocity  of,  192  ;  second  war 
with,  218  ;  succumbs  to  Lu- 
cullus,  218-219  I  third  war 
with  (the  "  great  "  war),  218 

Mommsen,  on  Cato's  encyclo- 
paedia, 293  ;  on  banquets,  289  ; 
on  Roman  religion.  317 

Monarchical  style  of  Pompey,  219 

Monarchy,  the,  degenerates  into 
tyranny,  72 

Money-lending  during  the  period 
of  the  republic.  74 

Money,  use  of.  for  pleasure,  156; 
uses  of,  in  early  Rome  7* 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES,      347 


Months,    the    intercalary,    247 ; 

meaning  of  names  of,  32 
Moses  on  boundaries,  30 
Mothers,  feasts  of  the,  316 
Mount  Gaurus,  battle  of,  114 
Mount  Vesuvius,  battle  of,  115 
Mucius,  Caius   Scaevola,  adven- 
ture of,  66 

Mules,  travel  by,  265 
Mulvian  Bridge,  battle  at,  208 
Munda,  victory  of  Caesar  at,  248 
Mus,     Marcus     Decius,    at    the 

battle  of  Vesuvius,  116 
Mus,    Publius    Decius,   devotes 
himself  to  the  gods,  118  ;  idea 
of  substitution  involved  in  the 
story  of,  317 

Music  after  dinner,  289  ;  at  fune- 
rals, 328 

Mylae,  battle  of,  131 
Myrtle,  the,  a  sign  of  rejoicing, 

274 
Mythology,    the,  of   Greece,  72, 

317 

N. 

Names,  the,  of  the  Romans,  14, 
36 

Naples,  simply  "  New  City."  127 

Natura,  tie  rerum,  the,  of  Lucre- 
tius, 304 

Naulochus,  defeat  of  Pompeius 
Sextus  at,  264 

Navy,  a,  created  by  Rome,  131  : 
lack  of,  by  Rome  130 

Neapolis,  league  with,  116 

Nepos,  Cornelius,  works  of,  308 

Neptunus,  festival  of,  315 
Vcw,  as  used  in  names  of  places, 
127 

New  Carthage,  139 ;  taken  by 
Scipio,  144 

Niebuhr,  establishes  the  true  char- 
acter of  the  Gracchi,  171  ;  lec- 
tures of,  67 

Nomenclator,  work  of  the,  290 

Noricum,  defeat  of  the  Romans 
at,  181 

Numa  Pompilius,  second  king. 
29 ;  calendar  of,  247 ;  gives 


the  people  religious  ceremonies 

30 

Numantia  taken  by  Scipio.  166 
Numicius,  the  river,  10 
Numidian  war  brought  to  a  close. 

1 80 
Numitor,     dispossessed    of    hit 

throne,    n  ;    replaced  on   hi* 

throne,  12 


Oak,  the,  sacred  to  Jupiter,  313 

Oclavia,  sister  of  Octavius.  es- 
poused by  Antony,  263  ;  deser- 
tion of,  by  Antony,  267 

Octavius.  at  Apollonia  with 
Caesar's  army,  255  ;  at  Taren- 
tum,  264  ;  chosen  as  successor 
of  Caesar,  248  ;  in  Asia,  268 ; 
takes  possession  of  public 
funds,  256 

Office,  how  used  by  provincial 
governors,  203 ;  merely  a 
means  to  gain  wealth.  175 

Office-holders  and  office-seekers. 
290 

Oligarchy,  an,  rules,  198  ;  the, 
of  lime  of  Cicero.  207 

Olive,  the,  sacred    to    Minerva, 

313 

Omens,  at  the  foundation  of 
Rome,  19  ;  ill.  after  the  fall  of 
Veii,  97  :  system  of,  319 

Opimius.  Lucius,  convicted  of 
receiving  bribes.  178 

Oppinn  law,  argument  for  its  re- 
IK-.I|.  154:  the.  reason  for. 
150;  restrictions  of,  1 68 

Ops,  goddess  of  plenty.  314 

Optimales  defined.  170:  oppose 
Pompey  and  Cicero.  219; 
power  of  decreasing.  183  .  »ec 
the  influence  of  Gracchus.  174  ; 
Sulla's  adhesion  to,  194  ;  un- 
dermine the  influence  of  Giac- 
chus,  174 

Oratory  of  Cams  Gracchus.  173  ; 
of  Cicero.  299.  300 

Orders,  union  and  severance  of 


348      INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES. 


the  two,  73  ;   a  tie  established 
between  the  two,  by  Corvus, 
113  ;  peace  between,  109 
Orgies   and  decay  of  simplicity, 

332 

Origines,  the,  of  Cato,  153,  293 
Ostia,     colony    founded    at,    by 

Ancus  Martius,  37 
Ovation  of  Crassus,  212 
Ovicula,  a  name  of  Fabius,  139 
Ovid    (Publius    Ovidius    Naso,) 
writings     of,     304  ;    mentions 
calamitous  Allia,  101  ;  story  of 
Celeres,  20 
Outlawry,  291 


Paenula,  the,  286 

Paloeopolis  (Old  City),  Il6 

Palace,  origin  of  the  word,  17 

Palatine  Hill,  the,  chosen  for  the 
site  of  Rome,  17  ;  Evander's 
city  at  foot  of,  10 ;  residence 
of  Romulus,  26 

Pales,  god  of  the  flocks,  314; 
ceremonies  connected  with 
worship  of,  18 

Palestine,  civil  war  in,  220 ; 
overrun  by  Pompey,  22O 

Pal  ilia,  feast  of,  17 

Palinurus  Cape,  defeat  of  the 
Romans  off,  133 

Pallantium,  in  Arcadia,  17 

Pallium,  the,  285 

Panormus,  Carthaginians  de- 
feated at,  133 

Paris  and  Helen,  story  of,  2 

Park,  the,  given  by  Caesar  to  the 
people,  256 

Parthia,  a  theatre  for  Crassus  to 
act  in,  232 

Parthians,  Antony  wages  war 
against,  266,  267  ;  plans  of 
Caesar  regarding,  248 ;  pre- 
tended war  against,  237 

Paterculus,  Caius  Velleius,  men- 
tion of  Drusus,  186 

Patricians,  three  tribes  of,  28  ; 
choose  censors  fiom  their  own 


order,  93  ;  irritated  by  meas- 
ures of  Cassius,  83 

Patriotism,  the,  of  Gracchus,  170 

Paulus,  Lucius  ./Emiliu.s(Macedo- 
nicus),  conqueror  of  Macedo- 
nia, 164 

Peacocks  come  into  vogue  as 
delicacies,  289 

Penny  collections,  319 

People,  hope  for  the,  183  ;  op- 
pressed by  the  optimates,  174  ; 
power  of  increasing,  83  ;  voice 
of  the,  made  supreme  law, 
119 

Pergamos  falls  into  the  hands  of 
the  Romans,  166 

Peristylum,  the,  2/6 

Perseus,  son  of  Philip  V.,  at  war 
with  Rome,  163  ;  defeated  at 
Pydna,  163 

Perusia,  siege  of,  262 

Pharsalia,  victory  of  Caesar  at,  244 

Philip  V.,  of  Macedon,  war  with, 
159;  death  of,  163;  treats 
with  Hannibal,  144 

Philippi,  defeat  of  Brutus  and 
Cassius  at,  261 

Philippics,  the,  of  Cicero,  257, 
258 

Philoctetes,  tomb  of,  13 

Philopoemen  revives  declining 
spirit  in  Greece,  163 

Phoenicia,  citizens  of,  found 
Carthage,  126 

Physician,  the  first,  293 

Pictor,  Quintus  Fabius,  writings 
of,  158,  297 

Pirates,  from  Illyria,  135  ;  in- 
crease of,  175  ;  in  the  Medi- 
terranean, 217 

Pisistratus,  tyranny  of  the  family 
of,  overturned,  73 

Placentia  besieged  by  Hasdrubal, 
146  ;  colony  at,  136 

Plague  in  Rome,  109 

Plato's  vision  of  Atlantis,  199 

Plautus,  Titus  Maccius,  writings 
of,  297  ;  the  first  play-writer, 
no 

Players  at  funerals,  329 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES.     349 


Plays  begin  to  be  written,  no, 

158 
Plebeian  successions  referred  to 

by  Valerius,  1 56 
Plebeians,    attempt    to    improve 
their    political     position,    82 ; 
become  a  part  of  the  social  or- 
ganization, 36  ;  continued  dis- 
,  tress  of,  88  ;  deprived  of  rights, 
84  ;  encouraged,    85  ;  had   no 
political  rights,  28  ;  increase  of 
importance  of,  51  ;  learn  their 
power,    76 ;    number    of,    in- 
creased, 37  ;  offkes  opened  to, 
93  ;  oppression  of,  by  the  pa- 
tricians,   73  ;  refuse   to    enrol 
for  war,  76 ;  restless  under  a 
sense  of  injustice,  115  ;  secede 
across   the   Anio,    77  ;  second 
secession    of,   92  ;  and    patri- 
cians reconciled,  109 
Plutarch,  on  the  effect  of  a  shout, 
161  ;    on    the    foundation     of 
Rome,  20  ;  on  the  motives  of 
Fabius,  145 
Politician,  defined,  40 
Politics  and  social  classes,  212 
Polybius,  on  the  complete  estab- 
lishment   of    Roman    empire, 
164  ;  taken  prisoner,  164 
Pomcerium,  the,  of   Rome,   19  : 
enlargement   of  the,  49  ;   ex- 
tended by  Sulla,  195 
Pompeia,  wife  of  Cresar,  216 
Pompeians  in  Spain,  248 
Pompeius,  Cneius  Magnus,  202  ; 
acts  in  the  East  ratified,  226  ; 
defeated    at    Pharsalia,    244  ; 
denounced  by  Curio,  236  ;  de- 
termined not  to  allow  Ca-sar  to 
be  consul,  235 ;  Joes  not  go  to 
Spain,    231  ;  exterminates  the 
pirates,  218;    final   defeat  of, 
245  ;  flees   from    Rome,    242  ; 
given   command  in  the  East, 
218;  gives  way' to  Sulla,  206; 
goes  to  Spain,  209  ;  learns  the 
art  of  war,  202  ;  needs  soldiers 
and  does  not  get  them,  241  ; 
statue  of,   250  ;   the  principal 


citizen.  208,  214  ;  triumph  of, 
212;  villa  of,  281 
Pompeius,  Magnus,  Scxius.  ma. 
rauding    expeditions    of,   am! 
defeat,  264  ;  peace  with,  263 
Pompey  anil  Ca-sar  at  war,  240 
Pompey     and     Catulus    oppote 

Lepidus,  208 
Pompey  and  Crassus  exterminate 

the  gladiators,  212 
Pons  sublitius,  building  of  the, 

by  Ancus  Martius,  38 
Pontifex  M aximus,  32 
Pontiff,  the  chief,  duties  of,  183 
Pontiffs,  corruption  of,  247 
Pontius,  Telesinus,  leader  of  thr 

Satnnites,  193 
Pontus,  Caesar  in,  245 
Poor  and  rich,  struggle  between, 

74 
Poor,  the,  growing  poorer,  1 19 ; 

1 86  ;  mocked,  169 
Poplicola  (Valerius),  consul,  65 
Populares,    attempt   of   Sulla  to 

blot  out,  194 

Popularity  of  Pompey,  217 
Population  of    Italy,  classes  of, 

124 

Populus  Romanus,  the.  73  ;  or- 
ganization of,  28,  36 
Porsena.    I.ars,  of  CluMiim,  66; 

losses  by,  repaired,  82 
Porter,  the,  in  ihe  house   274 
Portia,  wife  of  Brutus,  250 
Pourrieres,  village  of,  182 
Poverty,  attempts  to  alleviate  by 

laws,  83  ;  increa.se  of.  175 
Pneneslc,  siege  of,  193 
Prayer,  rites  of,  established,  31 ; 

to  Mars,  314 
Priam's  large  family.  I 
Prirsts,  colleges  of,  32.  319  ;  col- 
leges of,  formed,  318  ;  increase 
their  power,  319 
Prison,  the  Mamertinc.  38 
Private  interests  pushed,  214 
Proculus,  Julius,  appearance  ol 

Romulus  to.  27 
Professions,  the  Roman,  290 
Profligates  flock  to  Lcpidus.  207 


35O      INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES. 


Proletarii,  tte,  51 

Property,  instead  of  pedigree,  the 
basis  of  rank,  50,  73  ;  qualifi- 
cations introduced  by  Servius 
Tullius,  51 

Proscribed,  estates  of  the,  200 

Proscription  by  the  second  tri- 
umvirate, 260 

Proscription,  the,  of  Sulla,  194,244 

Provence,  166,  182,  226 

Province,  of  Asia,  166  ;  Greece 
becomes  a  Roman,  165  ;  Sicily 
becomes  the  first  Roman,  134 

Provinces,  the,  of  Rome,  166  ; 
corruption  in  the,  216  ;  how 
governed,  203 

Provincial  governor,  a,  222 

Prusias,  King  of  Bithynia,  gives 
Hannibal  an  asylum,  148 

Ptolemy  Epiphanes  applies  to 
Rome  for  help,  160 

Ptolemy  II.,  surnamed  Philadel- 
phus,  123 

Public  opinion,  change  in,  at 
Rome,  228 

Publilian,  laws,  85,  109 

Publilius,  Volero,  favors  laws 
friendly  to  the  plebeians,  85 

Pudding  of  spelt,  286 

Punic  war,  the  first,  129  ;  end  of 
the  first,  134  ;  the  second,  na- 
ture of,  139 ;  the  second,  im- 
portance of,  138  ;  the  third 
begins,  165  ;  one  result  of,  150 

Punishment  for  law-bieaking,  291 

Puns,  the,  of  Cicero,  204 

Purification  by  fire,  18 

Puteoli,  Sulla  retires  to,  196 

Pydna,  battle  at,  163 

Pyrrhus,  King  of  Epirus,  enters 
Italy,  119;  defeated  at  Male- 
ventum,  123  ;  goes  to  Sicily, 
123 ;  remark  of,  on  leaving 
Sicily,  128  ;  unsuccessful  in 
Sicily,  123  ;  victory  of,  much 
like  defeat,  122 


Quaestor,   office  of,  open  to  the 
plebeians,  93 


Quintilii,  the  followers  of  Romu- 
lus, 17 

Quirinal  Hill,  estate  of  Sallust 
on,  305  ;  residence  of  Tatius, 
on,  26 

Quirinalia,  feast  of,  28 

Quirinus,  the  god  representing 
Romulus,  27 

R 

Races  and  games  in  the  circus, 

323 

Ravenna,  ancient  position  of, 
238  ;  consultation  of  Curio  and 
Caesar  at,  237 

Records  of  Rome  burned,  25 

Reform  needed,  168 

Reforms,  of  the  Gracchi,  184  ; 
the,  of  Servius  Tullius,  52 ; 
the,  of  Sulla,  195 

Regillus,  Lake,  battle  at,  67 

Regions,  the  four  urban,  49  ;  loss 
of  ten,  67 

Regulus,  Marcus  Atilius,  deter- 
mines to  invade  Africa,  132  ; 
heroic  death  of,  133 ;  taken 
prisoner,  133 

Religion,  Ancus  Martius  regu- 
lates, 37  ;  of  the  Romans,  312, 
317  ;  organized  by  Numa,  30  ; 
severe,  72  ;  solemnities  of,  ne- 
glected by  Flaminius,  142 

Republic,  end  of,  254,  270 ;  es- 
tablishment of  the,  64  ;  fall  of 
the,  332 

Rhadamanthus,  the  yellow  hair- 
ed, 200 

Rhea  Silvia,  mother  of  Romulus 
and  Remus,  II 

Rhegium,  Mamertines  driven 
from,  by  Hiero  and  the  Ro- 
mans, 130 

Rhinoceros,  a,  exhibited  in  Pom- 
pey's  theatre,  232 

Rhodes  allied  to  Rome,  160; 
Caesar  studies  at,  206,  217 

Rich,  oppression  of  the,  73 

Roads,  communication  with  the 
capital  by,  124  ;  and  bridges 
built  by  Gracchus,  173 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES.     35 1 


Rogations,    the,    of    Appuleius. 

185  ;  the  Licinian,  109 
Roma  Quadrala,  30 
Roman,  characteristics,  69  ;  law, 
Caesar  proposes  to  codify,  246 ; 
people,  origin  of  the,  13  ;   re- 
ligion severe,  72 
Romans,  character  of,    118;   de- 
feated   at    Lake    Trasimenus, 
142;  earlier  occupations  of  the, 
71;  ravage  Africa,  147;  routed 
by  Hannibal,  140 

Rome,  architectural  progress 
under  Tarquin,  43  :  attacked 
at  the  north  and  south  at  once, 
Il8  ;  burned  by  Brennus,  102; 
burning  of,  25  ;  complete  es- 
tablishment of  its  power,  164  ; 
dismay  in,  142  ;  final  success 
of,  ensured.  115  ;  for  the  Ro- 
mans, a  party  cry,  186  ;  grows 
in  importance,  69  ;  increasing 
power  of,  in,  116;  increase 
of  wealth  of,  124,  159  ;  Jugur- 
tha's  opinion  of,  176  ;  Livy's 
history  of,  7  ;  loses  territory, 
67;  menaced  by  Brennus,  101 ; 
not  troubled  by  scruples,  130; 
outward  appearance  of  the  city, 
272  ;  power  of,  extended  in 
Asia,  192  ;  rebuilding  of,  after 
its  burning  by  the  Gauls,  106  ; 
seeking  a  site  for,  16 ;  takes 
Tarentum.  123 ;  territory  of, 
extended,  136,  221  ;  territory 
of,  in  Asia  enlarged,  162  ; 
threatened  by  Hannibal,  144  ; 
threatened  by  Pyrrhus,  122  ; 
threatened  with  ruin,  175  ; 

Romulus  and  Remus  thrown  into 
the  Tiber,  n 

Romulus,  gives  the  people  war- 
like customs,  29 ;  disappear- 
ance of,  27  ;  sole  ruler  of 
Sabines  and  Romans,  27 

Rostra,  the,  in  the  forum,  Ii6  ; 
the,  adorned  with  prows  of 
ships,  132 

Rubicon,  the,  becomes  the  border 
line  of  Roman  territory,  123, 


195  ;  crossed   by  Cesar,  240 ; 
difficult  to  identify,  238 
Rumor,  temple  built  in  honor  of, 
107 

S 

Sabines,  fight  with  the,  24;  names 

of  the,  15  ;  war  with.  90 
Sacred  Mount,  the,  79 ;  law  of 

the,  89 
Sacrifice  of  M.  D.  Mas,  116;  of 

P.  D.  Mus,  1 18 

Sacrifices,  human,  abolished,  31 
Saddle,   exercise    in    the,   281  ; 

travel  in  the,  290 
Saguntum,  siege  of,  139 
Salii,  subordinate  priests,  32 
Sallust  (Caius  Sallustius  Crispus), 

works  of,  305 

Samnites,  allies  of  Rome,  115; 
in  the  Marsic  war,  187;  mas- 
sacre of,  by  Sulla.  193;  threaten 
to  raze  the  city,  193  ;  origin  of. 
113  ;  overcome,  144  ;  second 
war  with,  116;  third  war  with, 
118 

Samos,  Octavius  rests  at,  270 
Sandals  and  shoes,  286 
Sardinia  and  Corsica  taken  from 

Carthage,  134 
Saturn,  Hill  of,  a  name  of  the 

Capitoline,  24 
Saturnalia,   the,   314,    31$  \    the 

women's,  316 

Saturninus,  Lucius  Appuieins,  ro- 
gations of,  185 

Saturnus,  god  of  social  order.  314 
Sc.vvola,  Mucius,  adventure  of, 

66 
Scandal,  the  game  of,  in  history, 

106 

School-book,  the  first.  295 
Science,  slow  growth  of.  294 
Scipio,    Africanus    Major,   give* 
away  his  daughter.  167;  inves- 
tigated by  Cato,  156  ;  sent  !• 
Spain,  144;  sets  out  for  Africa, 
146 

Scipio.  Lucius  Cornelius,  Asia**- 
cus,  at  Magnesia,  103 


352      INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES. 


Scipio,  Publius  Cornelius,  138 

Scipio,  Publius  Cornelius,  Nasica, 
defeated  by  Caesar,  245 

Scipio,  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio 
^Emilianus,  Africanus  Minor, 
son  of  ^Emilius  Paulus,  164  ; 
becomes  also  "  Africanus 
Minor,"  165  ;  becomes  leader 
of  the  optimates,  172  ;  marries 
Cornelia,  daughter  of  Gracchus, 
167;  murder  of,  172;  restores 
peace  in  Spain,  165 

Scylla  and  Charybdis,  129 

Stylus,  use  of  the,  295 

Secession,  of  the  plebeians,  77, 
92  ;  to  the  Janiculum,  119 

Self-sacrifice  of  Mus,  118 

Sempronian  laws,  the,  173 

Senate,  composition  of,  28  ;  de- 
prived of  the  choice  of  chief 
pontiff,  183;  enlarged  by  Sulla, 
195;  favors  war  with  Philip  V., 
1 60  ;  government  by  the,  29  ; 
opposes  Dnisus,  186;  plebeians 
made  eligible  to  the,  93  ;  pow- 
ers of,  abridged,  173  ;  powers 
of,  restricted,  184  ;  reluctantly 
forced  to  listen  to  a  letter  from 
Caesar,  238  ;  shut  up  in  the 
capitol,  102 

Senators,  authorize  Lepidus  to 
make  C;tsar  dictator,  244 ; 
flee  from  Rome,  241  ;  flee  after 
murder  of  Caesar,  250  ;  mur- 
dered by  the  Gauls,  102 

Sentium,  battle  near,  118 

Sertorius,  Quintus,  bravery  of, 
199  ;  assassinated,  209 

Servants  at  dinner,  289 

Servile  insurrections.  175 

Servius  Tullius  murdered,  56 

Seven  Hills,  the,  49,  70 

Sextus  (see  Pompeius  Magnus 
Sextus),  263 

Sextus,  Lucius,  first  plebeian  con- 
sul, 109 

Shakespeare's  version  of  the  offer 
of  the  crown  to  Caesar,  249 

Ships,  deficiency  of,   130 

Shoes  and  boots,  286 


Sibyl,  the,  of  Cumae.  visits  Tar 
quin,  59 

Sibylline  books,  the,  59,  72  ; 
burned,  193 ;  the,  consulted, 
136  ;  verdict  of,  by  whom  pro- 
nounced, 183 

Sicily,  becomes  a  Roman  prov- 
ince, 134  ;  career  of  Verres  in, 
203;  colony  of  Carthage  in,  128; 
result  of  a  war  in,  170  ;  servile 
insurrection  in,  166  ;  taken 
from  Lepidus  by  Octavius,  266; 
visited  by  Pyrrhus,  123 

Sicinius,  Lucius  Dentatus,  90 

Sidon,  glass  of,  127 

Siege  of  Rome  by  the  Gauls,  103 

Siege  of  Veii,  95 

Silvanus,  Mars,  traits  of,  314 

Silvanus,  the  god,  determines 
a  victory  for  the  Romans, 

65 
Silvia,  or  Rhea  Silvia,  II 

Siris,  battle  of  the  river,  122 

Slaves,  domestic,  282  ;  great  in- 
crease of,  1 66  ;  insurrection 
among,  183 ;  occupations  of, 
200  ;  punished  for  excesses, 
199  ;  their  share  in  education, 
292  ,  traffic  in,  74  ;  working 
fields  in  chains,  169 

Soldiers,  not  adapted  to  agricul- 
ture, 83  :  pay  provided  for,  83  ; 
rewarded  by  Octavius,  270 ; 
without  homes,  169 

Spain,  assigned  to  Pompey,  228  ; 
Carthaginians  in,  128,  139  ; 
mastered  by  Rome,  144  ;  Pom- 
peians  in,  243,  248  ;  Pompey 
in,  209  ;  Sertorius  in,  199  ; 
troubles  in,  165 

Spartacus,  the  gladiator,  210 

Spectators  in  the  theatres,  231 

Spring-time  festivities,  331 

Spurius  Cassius,  82 

Stagirite,  the,  192 

Stola,  use  of  the,  285 

Stolo,  Caius  Licinius,  see  Li- 
cinius,  109 

Stone,   use  of,  in  building,    326 

Streets  at  Rome,  159 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES.      353 


Substitution,  the  idea  of,  in  Ro- 
man religion,  317 

Suetonius  on  the  crossing  of  the 
Rubicon,  241 

Suffrage,  extended  to  the  Ital- 
ians, 173,  184;  offered  to  the 
allies  who  would  lay  down 
their  arms,  188 

Suggestum,  the,  116 

Sulla  and  Marius,  traits  of,  185 

Sulla,  Lucius  Cornelia,  character 
of,  176;  after  the  Marsic  war, 
188  ;  claims  credit  for  captur- 
ing jugurtha,  180;  description 
of,  180  ;  effects  of  his  doings, 
197 ;  goes  to  Gaul  with  Ma- 
rius; 181 ;  in  Asia,  190;  legis- 
lation of,  repealed  by  Pompey, 
212  ;  obtains  command  of  the 
army,  190  ;  resisted  by  Caesar, 
206 ;  scatters  his  veterans 
through  Italy,  196  ;  retirement 
of,  196  ;  threatens  vengeance, 
192 

Sumptuary  law,  a,  150 

^"mptuary  laws  enacted  by  Sulla, 

-95 

^oovetaurilia,  the,  54 
Superstition  increases,  319 
Sybaris  in  Magna  Grsecia,  114 
Syracuse,    grain   sent   from.  So ; 

taken,  144 

Syria  assigned  to  Crassus,  228 
Square  Rome,  30 
Squatters  on  Roman  lands,  83 
Switzerland,  Czesar  in,  227 


Table-customs,  286 

Tables,  richness  of,  289 

Tacita,  the  nymph  that  Numa 
pretended  to  meet,  32 

Talasia,  the  refrain  of  a  marriage- 
song,  22,  .283 

Tanaquil,  55 

Tarentines  and  Lucanians,  war 
between,  120 

Tarentum,  in  Magna  Gnecia, 
114  ;  conference  at,  264  ; 
given  up  to  pleasures,  121  ; 


falls  under  the  sway  of  Rome, 
123;  falls  into  the  hand  of 
Fabius,  145 

Tarpeian  Rock,  the,  24 

Tarpeia's  fate,  24 

Tarquinii,  one  of  the  cities  of 
Etruria,  9 

Tarquinius,  Priscus,  birth  of,  41  ; 
goes  to  Rome,  41  ;  progre** 
of.  43  ;  supposed  to  have  es- 
tablished the  great  games  of 
the  circus,  322 

Tarquinius,  Superbns,  endeavors 
to  stir  up  a  conspiracy,  64  ; 
flees  to  Cum;v.  68;  intrigues 
for  the  crown,  56  ;  great  works 
of,  60  ;  tyrrany  of,  58 

Tarquins,  the,  banished,  63 

Tatius,  proposes  to  attack  Rome. 
22  ;  slain  by  people  of  l.a- 
vinium.  27 

Telamon,  Gauls  defeated  at.  136 

Tellus,  the  nourishing  earth.  314 

Temple,  the,  at  Jerusalem  e»- 
amined  by  Pompey,  220 

Temples,  dedicated  to  the  honor 
of  Caesar,  246;  the  first  Ro- 
man, 313 

Ten  Men,  the.  89 

Tennis,  Maecenas  plays  a  game 
of,  265 

Terence  (Pnblius  Teretilin* 
Afer),  comedies  of.  298 

Tcrminalia,  ceremonies  of,  30 

Terminus,  worship  of.  30 

Territory  of  Rome,  increased. 
136  ;  insignificant,  7° 

Terror,  reign  of,  194 

Teuta,  perfidious  queen.  135 

Thanksgiving  for  the  victories  of 
Caesar.  227.  246 

Thapsus.  defeat  of  the  follower* 
of  Pompey  at.  245 

Theatre,  the.  of  Pompey.  231. 
326 

Theatres,  at  Tarenium  shut  op 
by  Pyrrhus  121  ;  the  Roman, 
charactcrisiics  of,  231 

Thermopylae,  defeat  <>f  the  Syri- 
an* at,  162 


354      INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES. 


Thirty  cities  of  Latium,  the,  II 
Thrace,  native  country  of   Spar- 

tacus,  211 
Threshold,  the  bride  lifted  over, 

283 
Thunder-storm,  influence  of,  on 

public  meetings,  319 
Thurii,  relics  at,  13 
Tiber  overflows  its  banks,  no 
Tibullus   Albius,  poetry  of,  304 
Ticinu:    Aattle  of  the,  140 
Toga,  ihe,  use  of,  285  ;  exempli- 
fied  in  the  case  of  Cincinna- 
tus,  86 

Tolosa,  gold  of,  184 
Torquatus,  Titus  Manlius,  slays 

a  Gaul,  113 

Towns  built  on  hills,  70 
Trades  learned,  289 
Trasimenus,  battle  of  Lake,  142 
Travel,  modes  of,  290 
Traveller,  hospitality  to  the,  280 
Treaties  with  Carthage,  115,  128 
Treaties  with  neighbors,  82 
"  Treating"  by  office-seekers,  290 
Trebia,  battle  of  the,  140 
Tribes,  citizens  of  the,  124  ;  di- 
visions of   the,    28  ;  ten   new, 
formed,  188  ;  the  thirty,  49 
Tribunes  of  the  people,  the  first, 
79  ;  Coriolanus  opposed  to,  81  ; 
power  of,  restricted  by  Sulla, 
195  ;  restored  by  Pompey,  212  ; 
military,  chosen,  93 
Triclinium,  the,  276 
Triremes  and  quinquiremes,  130 
Triumph,    the,  defined,  36  ;  de- 
scription of,  212  ;  instituted  by 
Tarquin,  44  ;  of  Camillus,  96  ; 
of  Cincinnatus,  87  ;  of  Fabius, 
146  ;  of  Marius  at  Rome,  180, 
182  ;  of  Octavius,  for  victories 
of   Actium   and    Egypt,   270  ; 
of  Pompey,  202,  212,  221  ;  of 
Sulla,  194,  195 

Triumvirate,  the  first,  so-called, 
224  ;  the  second,   258  ;  exten- 
sion of  the  second,  266 
Triumvirs,  reconciliation  of  two, 
263  ;  the  three,  each   striving 


for  the  ascendency,  232  ;  pre- 
scription by,  260 

Trojan  origin  of  Albans  and 
Romans,  34 

Troy,  the  play  of,  325  ;  begin- 
nings of  the  British  race  in,  6  ; 
date  of  fall  of,  4  ;  names  of 
the  heroes  of,  fixed  on  Italian 
places,  13  ;  story  of,  i 

Tullia,  the  wicked  daughter  of 
Servius  Tullius,  55 

Tulliarium,  the,  Mamertine 
prison,  180 

Tullius,  Servius,  sixth  king,  46 

Tullus  Hostilius,  the  king,  33  ; 
offends  the  gods  and  dies,  37 

Tunes,  age  of,  127 

Tunnel  under  Veii,  constructed, 
96 

Turchina,  the  remains  of  Tar- 
quinii,  41 

Turnus,  the  early  Italian  king,  10 

Tusculum  hills,  the,  124 

Twelve  tables,  laws  of  the,  89, 
90  ;  used  as  a  text-book,  293 

Tyrant,  a,  58,  236 

Tyre,  antiquity  of,  127  ;  inhabi- 
tants of,  126 

U 

Ulysses,  relics  of,  14 
Urn,  the  funeral,  329 
Utica,  antiquity  of,  127  ;    Scipio 
at,  146 


Vadimonis,  Lake,  victory  at, 
117  ;  second  bat  tie  near,  119 

Valerian  laws,  78 

Valerius,  Lucius,  champion  of 
the  women,  153 

Valerius,  Publius,  the  people's 
friend,  65 

Valerius,  see  Corvus,  Marcus  Va- 
lerius, 113 

Varro,  Marcus  Terentius,  on 
education,  294  ;  describes  life 
in  a  rural  house,  280  ;  on  the 
care  of  children,  284  ;  writings 
of,  300 


INDEX  TO  THE  TEXT  AND  THE  NOTES.      355 


Varro,  Terentius,  champion  of 
the  popular  party,  143 

Vaults,  burial,  329 

Vegetables,  a  diet  of,  287 

Veii,  one  of  the  Etrurian  cities, 
9  ;  siege  of,  94  ;  stones  brought 
from,  to  build  Rome,  107 

Velian  Hill,    house    of  Valerius 

on  the,  65 
Veni,    vidi,    vici,   expression  of 

Caesar,  245 

Ver  Sacrum,  sacrifice  of,  de- 
scribed, 114 

Vercellae,  rout  of  the  Cimbri  at, 
182 

Vercingetorix,  character  of,  229  ; 
opposes  Caesar,  228 

Verres,  Caius  Licinius,  traits  of, 
202  ;  flees  from  Rome,  204 

Verrucosus,  name  of  Fabius,  139 

Vesta,  goddess  of  the  fireside,  315 

Vestal  virgins,  the,  32 

Vestibule,  use  of,  275 

Vesuvius,  battle  of  Mount,  115  ; 
gladiators  in,  211 

Veterans,  allotment  of  land  to, 
261,  262 

Veto,  senate  deprived  of,  119 

Via,  Appia,  course  of,  124  ; 
Egnatia,  route,  of,  261  ;  La- 
tina,  course  of,  124  ;  Osti- 
ensis,  course  of,  124  ;  Sacra, 
212  ;  Saleria,  route  of,  124  ; 
Valeria,  course  of,  124 

Vice,  increase  of,  175 

Villa,  adornments  of  the  pleasure, 
281  ;  the  farm,  279  ;  the  pleas- 
ure, 279  :  of  Cicero,  given 
over  to  destruction,  224 

Vinalia,  feasts  of,  314 

Violence  and  bloodshed,  famili- 
arity with,  185 

Virgil  (Publius  Vergilius  Maro), 
works  of,  309  ;  joins  Horace 
on  a  journey,  265  ;  story  of 
/Eneas,  7 

Virginia,  death  of,  91 

Virginius,  Lucius,  commands 
against  the  ,-Equians,  90 

Voice,  temple  built  to,  107 


Volero  (see  Publilias).  85 
Volscians,   the,  threaten   Rome 

8 1  ;  overcome,  116 
Votes,  solicitation  of,  by  women 

150,  153 

Vulcanus,  festival  of,  315 
Vultures,  augury  by,  17 

W 

Walls  and  floors,  278 
War,  civil,  consequences  of ,  333 ; 
in  early  times,  traits  of,  87  ; 
engines  of,  95  ;  precaution 
neglected  in,  loi  ;  prosperity 
by,  125 

Wars  add  to  Roman  prestige,  94 

Wealth,  increase  of,  150,    185  ; 

how  obtained  by  Crassus,  200 ; 

of    private  citizens,   235  ;    of 

Sallust,  305 

Wedding  ceremonies,  283 
Windows  and  shutters,  279 
Wives  wanted  in  early  Rome,  2t 
Women,  corruption  of,  284  ;  cu»- 
toms     regarding,     at     Rome. 
149 ;  dress  of  the.  285  ;  gooil 
works  of,  for  the  state,  153 
movement  of  the  Roman,  149 
the  Sabine.  bring  peace,  26 
toilet  articles  of.   286  ;  287 
want  of.  in  early  Rome,  21 
Woods,  the  first  temples  in  the, 

3'3 
Workmen,  importance  of,  51 


Xanthippus,  the  Spartan,  aids 
Carthage,  132 

Y 

Year,  the.  lengthened  by  Cesar. 
247  ;  the  pontiff*  lengthen  01 
shorten,  236  ;  the  Roman,  32 

Yoke,  the,  passing  under,  87.  117 

Z 

Zama,  rout  of  the  Carthaginian* 
at.  147  ;  soldiers  of  Macedonia 
at,  160 

Zela,  C.tsar's  victory  at.  245 


9414 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


m     \J\M    S  1Q8b 

— •     A/I"*       __5fi! 

DEC  18 198 


Form  L'J-Series  444 


AA      000027257  5 


3  1158  00327  6440 


